Ode to Third Places

“Third places” was a term coined by Ray Oldenburg in a seminal 1989 book about placemaking, The Great Good Place. According to Oldenburg, "first places" are homes, "second places" are for work, and "third places" are practically every other place people in a community when they weren’t at home or at work, e.g., churches, parks, cafes, etc. Michele Reeves, an urban strategist for Civilis in Portland Oregon, is a self-professed food-oriented third place devotee. In a heart-felt piece, Reeves writes about the serendipitous, and often random, way these third places can lead to new adventures, discoveries, and friends. Portland is a city with a wealth of third places—especially of the café, bakery, brew pub, and restaurant variety. Of those beloved third places, Reeves writes:

. . . these spots have a few things in common: easy to walk to, busy, amazing natural light, and great core food products — either baked goods or coffee. For me though, they are at their best as citizens of the street. In other words, they blur the line between interior and exterior.

For more of Reeves’s favorite third place experiences in Portland, please read the source article.