Where we go to be ourselves: The need for ‘Third Places’

Everyone needs it. An informal, neutral setting within a community that supports the individual. It encourages conversation. It embraces differences. It’s a park, a bar, a coffee shop, a hair salon, a library — any spot that welcomes diversity and, sometimes, action.It isn’t home.

It isn’t work. It’s a third place.

This isn’t a new concept. Sociologist Ray Oldenburg is credited with solidifying it in his 1989 book, The Great Good Place, and it has since evolved over the decades as our increased access to things like money, technology and travel – while great – have shifted our need and desire for a blended community.

“The idea that we spend so much time at home, then we leave our home and go to work, and then for most folks they leave work and go home, there's nothing necessarily wrong with that,” said Michael Carrier, urban historian and professor at the Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE). “In a lot of times that's almost done out of necessity because people may be working multiple jobs, they may have childcare issues. But, when your life is that bifurcated, you don't get the sociability that people need.”

Carrier does his own exploration of the topic in his book, The City Creative: The Rise of Placemaking in Urban America. On this episode of Uniquely Milwaukee, we dive into the significance of having places where people can just exist, including a new “third place” on the East Side called The Washroom.

At first, the activity of doing laundry may not seem social — until you give it more than a passing thought.“ I think a laundromat is a perfect place to make into a third space because you're getting folks from all different walks of life going to one space once a week,” The Washroom owner Kelli Johnson said. “That, within itself, is very powerful … building and creating community.”

Episode Host: Kim Shine

For more stories visit radiomilwaukee.org/ourstories. Uniquely Milwaukee is sponsored by the Milwaukee Public Library.