The Role of Third Places

This week’s readings focus on the role of businesses in a community or neighborhood. It is undeniable that commerciality is an essential part of an area. Businesses help shape the character and flavor of a community and they provide resources to the residents of the area. The types of goods and services provided are often good indications of what the needs and priorities of the people who live in the neighborhood, thus making them integral to the health and well-being of the community. In “The Character of Third Places”, Ray Oldenburg argues that “third places”, or places which are neither home nor work, are essential to the success and flourishing of neighborhoods. He states that these third places function as places for people from diverse backgrounds to gather and socialize and converse on neutral ground so that individuals can be part of a whole. When reading this, I was struck by how utopian this concept of third places seems, especially in a place like New York. I would argue that very few people from New York go to restaurants or other venues of that ilk to socialize or converse with people they did not come there with. It is a violation of assumed norms in the city to strike up a conversation with a stranger in public (with the exception of asking for directions or issuing the occasional compliment), since most people want to be left alone. This being said, I think bars are an exception to this rule because there is an unspoken agreement that bars are an appropriate place to meet strangers. This is in stark contrast to the community where my maternal grandparents are from, which is a tiny village in eastern Washington State in the middle of the high desert. This village, called Bickleton, has about 90 people so naturally, everyone knows each other and there is no sense of privacy. Going to one of the town’s two restaurants is not just about the food, but is in fact the third place that Oldenburg talks about, thus functioning as a place for people to hang out, catch up, and shoot the breeze. This culture clash between my vast community of New York and their miniscule community of Bickleton is ever apparent when I visit them or they visit us. I get uncomfortable being expected to talk to everyone in Bickleton because I don’t view public places as a place to stop and chat for an hour, whereas my grandmother likely makes native New Yorkers uncomfortable by striking up conversations with them on the subway. The role of third places varies greatly based on cultural context.