You may have heard of third places before, but in case it’s new to you, they’re essentially community spaces where you can chill & socialize…Like here, I suppose! But typically they refer to in-person community spaces.
Does your area of the world still have a number of these, or are they in the decline? Do you know if your in-person communities are trying to establish or renovate theirs to help people connect or reconnect with one another?
Great video from Not Just Bikes on third places.
Main issue is how we are/have been building towns/communities. More often than not, you’ll see new builds on land solely for single family homes or only residential apartments instead of mixed used (commercial first floor, residential/office second+ floors) buildings. These all feed onto higher speed roads/highways where you have to drive to shop/eat/work/etc. Many older/pre-suburb towns may still have good third places, we just don’t build towns like that anymore.
Just got around to watching the video, and that is a good point. Lot of areas that lack third places do seem to be down to the clunky zoning arrangements.
I realize it likely differs with each area, but it has me thinking I don’t really know on what level of government zoning is typically handled, and I suspect I’m probably not alone in this.