Don Martin

You might be there to meet up with friends, but the purpose of the third place is to try to kind of get to know the community.

New people or regulars and strangers alike, regulars and newbies alike are supposed to mix and create conversation, create community.

build and foster maintain community bonds discuss the stuff going on in the community it's supposed to be a very casual kind of vibe it's supposed to be a home away from home and the american mall just simply isn't that and never was some folks disagree because for a lot of people it is a place to go and we don't have a lot of places to go especially because of what's called the suburbanization of america which is something that robert putnam talked about in his book

Bowling Alone, which is a seminal work that came out around the year 2000.

It started off as an article in 1995.

It came out around the year 2000, his big book, where he also talked about loneliness, but more about disconnection and about how stuff like bowling leagues, stuff like just places to meet up are disappearing from society and what, if anything, is replacing them.

So when it comes to the

You have to start saying, okay, Oldenburg and a lot of people like to create like a platonic ideal out of the neighborhood bar.

When you talk about a third place, a lot of people will talk about the TV show Cheers.

Do you remember the TV show Cheers?

It's about your neighborhood bar, right?

It's a place where everybody knows your name.

Yeah, they're always glad you came.

And that's where you went after work.

That's where you went on the weekends.

That's where your friends were.

And

Anybody from the Harvard and Oxford-educated irritated psychologist, Dr. Fraser Crane, is sitting next to a Midwestern corn-fed himbo in the form of Woody Harrelson.

And then there's the out-of-work accountant.

And then all of different stripes.