"Even when amenities exist, they often don't function as true third places. Fewer than half of Americans said people in their community could gather with neighbors in restaurants or diners (46 percent), coffee shops or cafés (41 percent), gyms or fitness centers (37 percent), or neighborhood markets (35 percent). Bookstores and retail spaces, the stuff of nostalgic civic life, barely register."
"Asked about parks, gardens, libraries, community centers, and similar spaces, half of Americans say they never or seldom visited a park in the last year, and only 15 percent report going once a week or more. For libraries, the numbers are even more stark: 63 percent say they never or seldom walked through the doors in the past 12 months, and just 17 percent visit at least once or twice a month."
Third places are informal gathering spots—diners, coffee shops, bowling alleys, barbershops, church basements, and library meeting rooms—that foster friendship, civic apprenticeship, and everyday pluralism. The 2024 American Social Capital Survey documents steep declines in visits to public and commercial gathering spaces, with half of Americans seldom visiting parks and 63 percent seldom visiting libraries. Only 15 percent visit parks weekly and 17 percent visit libraries monthly. Fewer than half of Americans report functioning local gathering spots such as restaurants (46%), coffee shops (41%), gyms (37%), or neighborhood markets (35%). A Civic Infrastructure Scale measures access to ten types of potential community spaces. Reviving and committing to third places is necessary to rebuild social capital and civic life.
Read at Washington Monthly
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