Hi First name / friend,
When I went off to college, I was determined to have fun.
Perhaps like other millennial teens, I had a nonzero amount of angst over all of the fun stuff I might miss out on if I didnāt put myself out there.
So I joined a sorority, made friends with the boys (girls too!) in my dorm building, and said yes to most of the things I was invited to freshman year. Thatās pretty much how I found myself on the three-ish hour drive to UC Santa Cruz with my new boyfriend and our friends to blaze it up in a meadow on April 20th. Because like,
how could we not?
I promise this weekās letter isnāt about some enlightened moment I had on a lawn with other 19-year olds on the California Coast. But as Iāve continued on my urban planning education journey, I do find myself thinking a lot about my undergrad experience.
For a lot of folks, college is the first time they live in a walkable place (as one of my tiktok faves,
@signedbritt, puts it!). Think about it ā for folks with more traditional campuses, your friends, your classes, your groceries, basically everything you need is available to you within a 15-minute walk! This is one reason why urbanists advocate for walkable cities; your quality of life is just generally better.
And like that smokey meadow in Santa Cruz, my college campus (UC Davis! Go ags!) had an epic quad. I would bet anything that right now, there are students reading, picnic-ing with friends, taking a nap in a hammock (they added those after I graduated, very rude), passing out flyers, and any other number of activities on that quad. But probably not smoking weed because I think itās a smoke-free campus now lol.
The quad is an important Third Place.
If the term is new to you, no worries! Itās quite simple. The First Place is where you live, the Second Place is where you work, and the Third Place is where you gather. I get into this a bit in
my reel from last week, and there's definitely more nuance, but a āthird placeā is pretty much any physical space that isnāt your home or where you work where you gather with or run into other people, ideally in your neighborhood. Itās a place where you can connect with other people. It could be a cafe, bar, barber shop or, my favorite (!!), a PUBLIC space like a library, a plaza, a park, or a community garden.
A friend and APTCH member shared that Starbucks used the concept of the Third Place as a big part of their retail space strategy ā though they recently
announced to shareholders they plan to change that.
Starbucks didnāt invent the idea of the Third Place, though. The term was coined by urban sociologist
Ray Oldenburg, who thinks main streets, coffee shops, and other third places provide the vitality that communities need. Oldenburg believed that third places "host the regular, voluntary, informal, and happily anticipated gatherings of individuals beyond the realms of home and work.ā
We need those gathering spots. They create cohesion in our society; they keep us connected to each other and build trust. Iām prone to hyperbole, but I honestly believe that cities would die without third places. I think itās also critical that we maintain third places that are public; when we cede too much power to privately operated third places, where does that leave us? Perhaps Starbucksā shift away from coffee shops and toward drive-thrus is a hint.
So while I likely wonāt be lighting up a jay (j?) in a field today, Iāll have that 2009 4/20 celebration on my mind. Because for fun young adult Dominique, it felt like an important place to go be around other young people in a thick haze, surrounded by competing wireless speakers blasting various reggae artists.
Do you have a go-to third place? Iād love to hear about yours ā feel free to reply to this email! Mine is probably the little triangle park across the street from our house, but maybe my
community garden plot will become oneā¦
Until next time,
Dominique
