Great Good Place

All quotes from The Great Good Place by Ray Oldenberg xi - “when the good citizens of a community find places to spend pleasurable hours with one another for no specific of obvious purpose, there is purpose to such association.” xii - “In a world increasingly rationalized and managed, there must be an effective vocabulary and set of rationales to promote anything that is to survive.” 12 - “About the only need that suburbanites can satisfy by means of any easy walk is that which impels them toward their bathroom.” Zing. 22 - Defining the characteristics (“uses” or “benefits”) of the Third Place.
  1. “Friends can be numerous and often met only if they may easily join and depart one another’s company.” Quoting Richard Sennett: “People can be sociable only when they have some protection from others.” (Also quotes Jane Jacobs here.) The Third Place offers *neutral ground* in which friends can mingle. Importantly, they are not in each other’s homes.
  2. Third Places are great levelers. Everyone is on the same ground, both economically and personally. “Personal problems must be set aside as well… [the members of the community] relegate them to a blessed state of irrelevance. The temper and tenor of the place is upbeat; it is cheerful.”
  3. “Conversation is the main activity.”
27 - Emerson in “Table Talk” claims Paris as the cultural center of the world because “it is the city of conversation and cafes.” 28 - reciting #poetry [skipping around] 204 - “The planners, builders, and owners [of American businesses] have learned how to discourage the social use of their establishments. The modern retail establishment and public office building are now hostile to the loitering, lounging, and hanging-on that are part and parcel of an informal public life. The aisles, counters, and shelves—the layout—of the new establishments precludes sitting around and even just standing around in conversational groupings.” Think about grocery stores. Usually, there’s nowhere to sit, despite the fact that they’re places where you buy food. Walmart has no space between aisles to stand and chat with a friend. He goes on to mention “nonplaces,” where people can’t be persons. My first thought, of course, is traffic. Cars are devoid of personality. 208-209 - some good quotes in this section 210 - “Few of us range as casually, as freely, or as comfortably in our neighborhoods as our grandparents did in theirs. Indeed, many homes have no sidewalks out front. People are expected to come and go in the privacy of automobiles. Traveling in this manner, people cross an environment without ever becoming part of it. The resulting habitat discourages contact of any kind between those who have the potential for becoming, if not the best friends, at least the most *available* ones.” 210 - We are liked caged chickens. Only TV makes our captivity tolerable [and the internet].