The Great Good Place: Cafes, Coffee Shops, Community

The Great Good Place: Cafes, Coffee Shops, Community Centers, Beauty Parlors, General Stores, Bars, Hangouts and How They Get You Through the Day By Ray Oldenburg Marlowe & Company, New York, 1989, 1997 Second Edition. Softcover, 296 pp., $14.95. Great good places, such as those listed in the subtitle of this fun and enlightening book, are “third places.” After home, first, and workplace, second, the third place is local, in the center of a town or neighborhood, and inclusive. Oldenburg’s basic premise is that vital neighborhoods (as well as towns and societies) must find their balance in three realms of experience — one is domestic, a second is gainful or productive, and the third is inclusively sociable, offering both the basis of community and the celebration of it. The University of South Florida professor of sociology explains that the third realm of experience (as distinct a place as home or office) solves the problem of place and our basic need to enjoy life and have fun. As a core setting of informal public life, the great good place serves as a host for regular, voluntary, and happily anticipated gatherings. The type and character of the great good place promotes conversation and friendly expression. In addition to the cafe, coffee shop, general store, and the community center, other places within a community with a convivial atmosphere have a definable “address” with examples such as: bakery; ice cream shop; barber shop; meeting hall; boys and girls club; playground, park; church; post office; corner store; restaurant, diner; drug store; tavern; farmers market; teen center. These are the types of places that city planners, town planners, urban designers, landscape architects, architects, and community builders need to include in our place-making initiatives. The great good place is meant for those who believe in a public life and the need to restore it, even with some less formidable places such as: baseball field; porch; basketball court; sidewalks; bench; stage; flower stand; steps; gazebo; street, as an extension of the home. Planning and design professionals dedicated to new urbanist principles should enjoy the cross-references in “Preface to the Second Edition” of the 1997 version of the book (ISBN 1-56924-778-1). This Preface has references to supplement the bibliography including: Peter Katz’s The New Urbanism; David Sucher’s City Comforts; Philip Langdon’s A Better Place to Live; Terry Pindell’s A Good Place to Live; Holly Whyte’s The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces; and treatises of other kindred spirits. Oldenburg indicates that suburbia often denies civicism, with almost no facilities for collective meetings and informal gatherings. He believes that this is due in large part to zoning regulations, which disallow mixed uses and which spawn developments containing nothing but homes. He describes great good places as “ports of entry” assimilating residents, visitors, and newcomers, in contrast with a conventional suburban institution such as a country club, which is not available to the middle class. He quotes a planner from New York who feels that if suburbia is to survive, it will have to create and reflect more of the diversity which is characteristic of small towns and older cities. Although Oldenburg focuses on the presence or absence of the third place from an adult perspective, he provides notable insights to the effects of “shutting out youth.” He explains the disconnect between youths and adults, where they no longer encounter one another frequently, casually and informally. He feels that the neighborhood store, the luncheonette, or even the bowling alley would provide a needed place for youths and adults to mix and mingle. He also reinforces the need for intergenerational contact by briefly addressing the plight of the elderly. When the final migration to some “senior citizen community” takes place, society loses the richness that retired people can provide to a union of friends. Oldenburg feels that our municipalities should be generous in the provision of playtime facilities in “everyman’s land.” If they provided wholesome and inclusive downtown settings where people could mingle freely and pleasurably at little or no cost, we might now have a healthier, more closely knit population. From this reviewer’s perspective, the directive is clear — include great good places in your plans, ordinances, and codes. Allow Oldenburg to give you the courage. Thomas J. Comitta is principal of Thomas Comitta Associates, Inc. (TCA), a town planning firm in West Chester, Pennsylvania. (610) 696-3896.