Author Archives: Sneha

Sneha on “Third Places”

Reading Oldenburg’s writing made me think of the sharp contrast in the availability of third spaces in places I have lived in.

In my childhood years, I grew up in an urban condo building complex in Mumbai. In the evenings, all the kids in the housing association of 50 buildings played in the centralized open courtyard lawns and the association frequently held events for the kids and adults in the neighborhood. You would immediately meet all new-comers to the neighborhood, as well as get to know who was getting married, when, and other such day-to-day gossip. All building residents would regularly play “Housie” (the indian version of Bingo) on the roof. Third places were abundant here because of the ideal mix of a densely populated cluster of people and the unified cultural preference for extended families and community life in India.

In the early 90s, we moved as a family to an apartment complex in the suburban sprawl of Cupertino, California. The city was a melting pot of cultures, and was seeing an influx of immigrants, like ourselves, arriving from various parts of the world to be part of the newly burgeoning tech industry. We were shocked by the sudden emptiness in our lives. There was no one to borrow sugar from and I got a general sense that you could walk many miles into the neighborhood and not see very many people outside. In passing, the usual “how are you’s” seemed like a mere formality before people entered their well-guarded private spaces. I did see cultural pockets of third places being created, but they were private and exclusive to each culture (various asian community centers, faith-based gatherings, etc). Even when a city like Cupertino does create a public city plaza or a park, it largely remains sparsely occupied because it is still a driving distance from everyone’s houses. The “successful” third places seem to be commercially motivated. There is a rise in outdoor malls which have adopted an artificial version of the “ european plaza” look. People congregate here to shop at high-end stores, drink coffee in outdoor areas, and get a feeling that there are many people walking around them. While people are getting their third space needs fulfilled, they are paying a big price for it.

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Santana Row, an outdoor “European plaza” mall near Cupertino

 

I think the thirst for third spaces, experiences, and a connection to people is a large reason why many people are forgoing personal possessions and space of suburbia and moving closer to urban environments.

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