As a former work-from-home zombie, I’ve long resented being at the house. In the 1980s, sociologist Ray Oldenburg described three places that we spent the majority of our time: the first place (home), the second place (work), and the third place.
The third place could be anything. It consists of the places that we spend our time at when we’re not working or at home. Some common third places include libraries, bars, churches, cafes, gyms, bookstores, and parks. We’ve got a decent amount of those, don’t we?
I’m dedicated to documenting all of the available options we have for third places in Kyova, and I believe there’s plenty of room for more. For my former self, my first and second place were the same, and this is true for many folks around our region.
Why We Need Third Places
We all need to leave the house. It’s not good for one’s mental health to be cooped up inside of a room all day, consuming mindless entertainment and contributing to unhealthy behaviors such as binge-eating junk foods.
When you repeat the same patterns over and over, you stay stagnant, and as Livestrong reports, staying stagnant will make you pretty sad. Cabin fever is a real phenomenon. From the same article, we can conclude that being inside traps you on your devices, scrolling news feeds and algorithmically-placed articles designed to make you suffer, and overstimulation often leads to mental health disorders.
And since depression often interferes with your sleep, you may find yourself tossing and turning should you stay inside the house for long periods of time. Lack of exposure to natural lighting can also cause the body to not sleep well when it’s time to go to sleep.
There’s even evidence that leaving the house is linked with longevity in older adults.
Getting outside and into the world (and more specifically, into your community) is so important for our mental health and physical health in so many more ways than just these. But there’s a problem with third places in Kyova.
The Expectation
Struggling to find a place to write, I’ve finally settled on the Boyd County Public Library just outside of Ashland in Summit, Kentucky. This is a new building that was built just a few years prior, and it is cozy here.
There are dozens of tables and chairs equipped with charging stations and electrical outlets, and the window I’m sitting at provides a very nice view of an otherwise ordinary backdrop; automobiles flying by on the highway and Summit RV sitting right across the highway. Camping made easy, huh?
I like it here. I like the fact that the Wi-Fi is fast and responsive, and I like the fact that I don’t have to directly spend money to be here. Yes, as a taxpayer I realize that we fund government buildings such as public libraries. But we accept those as a mandatory aspect of life, and there’s no escaping it.
The problem with most of our third places is that there is an expectation to spend money at each of those places.
You could go to the bar, but you’re gonna have to buy a drink if you want to sit in there and chat with your friends.
You could go to the gym, but the only thing that grants you access to that gym is your membership card which you’ve paid for in advance.
You could go to church, but (while not required) you are expected to pay your tithes and you may feel a little bit guilty for not doing so.
You could go to the barber shop, but you are expected to pay for a haircut while you’re there. And as long as you’re supporting a small local business, this could be a good thing. But unfortunately, not everyone is able to pay endless amounts of money just to get out of the house, and that brings us to the point of this article.
Free Third Places
What third places are there that don’t have the expectation that you’re going to spend money in their establishment?
- Public libraries
- Hiking trails
- Lakes
- Public parks
- Volunteer spaces
As you can tell, the list isn’t very expansive.
There are a few small libraries in typically antiquated buildings in the area. The Boyd County Public Library in downtown Ashland is an old, small building and struggles to handle the amount of traffic that it gets. The Portsmouth Public Library is in an even older building and also struggles to handle its traffic.
Kyova is ripe with hiking trails and lakes. As I mentioned earlier, I’m dedicated to documenting all of this in an attempt to get more people out onto the trails, but the problem is that the trails are starting to get overcrowded with people too.
On a Saturday it may be impossible to find a parking spot at a trailhead because there’s so many folks on it, and that’s a good thing for the area. But for someone looking for a little bit more seclusion, it might not be. Another problem with most trails is that they are not an option for disabled people, so those folks are left with even fewer choices.
The area is also full of public parks. There are a number of parks with playgrounds and baseball fields, but our public parks are typically oriented towards families and little children. So where are all the third places for single, young adults?
Kyova as the Third Place
I’m an urbanist. I believe in strong city centers.
In a less car-dependent Kyova, our third place would be the entire downtown core of the region, which I hypothesize becoming a walkable stretch of districts from Huntington all the way to Portsmouth.
There would be free public-WiFi throughout the region, which would be intertwined with apartment buildings and boutiques and restaurants. The Wi-Fi would be taxpayer funded, of course, because sometimes it’s worth it to pay a little bit more for a necessity as crucial as Internet access.
Imagine the possibilities if our entire area had free Wi-Fi for all. Imagine the work that could be done if everyone had access to technology and didn’t have to confine themselves to a fast food restaurant or an overcrowded library. Underprivileged minds could thrive in this region if we gave them the opportunities to.
There would be a park every few blocks so that there would never be a lack of space for everyone. Imagine walking a few blocks past some shops, grabbing a bite to eat, and then walking a few more blocks into a public park with fountains and flower gardens and sensory gardens and statues. There would be adequate seating for all, and enough tables for everyone to have a little picnic. There would be people playing sports and chilling out and having good times. Life would be good.
There would be free public lounges with coffee tables and comfortable chairs for all. We wouldn’t be expected to buy a $6 coffee to hang out and write our blogs or screenplays. We could just walk in, sit down, and get to work.
I envision a Renaissance occurring here, and that’s the Kyova that I want to live in. One of the goals of this blog is to make it happen by any means necessary.
Conclusion
Kyova as the third place makes sense to me. I don’t know if it makes sense to anyone else. But I imagine a walkable, liveable, bikeable, stretch of high density buildings stretching from Huntington to Portsmouth by way of Kentucky. It would be our New York City or our Tokyo. Just people living without vehicles.
Imagine the art we could create on these buildings. Imagine the people we could bring in to visit our little interconnected region. Imagine other cities looking to us for guidance.
That’s the Kyova that I want to live in.