A third space is an area where people spend casual time outside of their home and work/school environment. A day in the life the average urban citizen can be divided into three 8-hour segments – 8 hours of sleep, 8 hours of work and 8 hours of personal time.

The goal of successful urban planning is to provide quality of life for the 3 areas of work, sleep and play. Our research has shown the African-American has not been practicing the establishment of third spaces to accommodate quality of life in the black community. In this article we are going to discuss how the black community can look at designing and implementing third spaces in their community to improve quality of life.

Historical Third Spaces

 What quickly comes to mind for most African-Americans when thinking about third spaces are soul food kitchens, the church, community service centers, the workout gym, Masonic hall or the corner bar. The historical issue is these traditional third spaces has constraints or restrictions creating cliques and subcultures within the African-American community instead of comprehensive third spaces that can serve everybody.

One of the silent patterns of gentrification and divestment was the denial of loans and funding by banks and other investors of creating third spaces within the African-American community. When we look at the type of news announcements of urban investment in the black community, the output are convenience stores, gas stations or paid entertainment such as a movie theatre. If nothing but commercial establishments are created, the community will continue to remain economically unstainable if there are no third spaces where the average urban citizen can enjoy a casual environment from their home and work environment.

Another factor of attrition where crime and illegal organizations are allowed to operate with impunity in the community. This include street gangs that take over a park or a traditional urban space preventing the residents from enjoying the space. Or foreign cartels to setup foreign-owned businesses such as black hair care stores with no regard to supporting the community quality of life. Or predatory lending cartels of tax refunds, title loans and pawn shops target and flood the area buying commercial space that could have been earmarked for third spaces.

It is important to discuss the role of churches and other non-profits in the black community. The problem is there are too many in the urban community and interferes with the process of developing third spaces. For example, the community services are mostly there to primarily receive public and private grant and funds off the poverty conditions without improving the overall quality of life in the community they claim to serve.

With churches and temples, the religious brick and mortar model has been a successful third space for centuries by providing a public square to accommodate a marketplace, a place for adults to chill and children to play and provide a statue or fountain as a focus point.  Today, the church has proliferated into retail centers and taking over areas that were once storefronts making it harder to restore and revitalize these commercial areas to serve the community as commercial centers and third spaces.

There is one more factor – liquor licenses. The local government will either provide too many or too little liquor licenses. By providing too many liquor licenses for a black community, this allow corner bars and liquor stores serve as “third spaces” increasing alcoholism and alcohol-related crime to enter African-Americans into the criminal justice or probation cycle. By providing too little liquor licenses, it promotes the creating of unregulated drinking holes and street drinking creating a bigger nuisance and more violent crime usually arise as a result.  Liquor licenses are used as leverage to manipulate the quality of life in a community and African-Americans have to be mindful of this strategy.

It is important to understand these factors to know how to create a tactical strategy to target existing efforts to divest the black community by making it hard to live in their community through the removal of third spaces to reduce the quality of life. The overall strategy is to find ways to create new third spaces and reclaim and restore traditional third spaces already established in the community to revitalize and establish a quality community.

Type of Third Spaces

There are three types of third spaces – public and private and virtual.

Public Third Spaces. These are spaces are considered for public use and operated by the municipal government such as parks and recreation and funded by taxpayers. Examples are parks, lakes, beaches, swimming pools and playgrounds.

Private Third Spaces.  These are spaces created by entrepreneurs and organizations dedicated to bringing a quality of life. The best example is Starbucks which study shows, increase the real estate value of a community by bringing a third space for the community to enjoy. Examples of private third spaces are cafes, fitness clubs and private membership social clubs.

Virtual Third Spaces. This is a new and rising paradigm of a third space where the person use multiplayer video games and immerse themselves in virtual reality universes to conduct activities.  If we look back in time, the 900 telephone numbers that allow people to chat with strangers is an example of virtual third spaces using technology. Today we are seeing in the African-American community the use of virtual black communities with YouTube-based leaders being used as third spaces to engage in escapism about black finance and black empowerment and more.

Note on Mobility Third Spaces. Not fully defined but mobile third spaces are automobile-based where the person sits in congested urban traffic for 1-2 hours, drives around or cruising on a motorcycle or car or take a road trip in vehicles that provide information and entertainment centers.

Third Spaces Around the World

If look around the world at third spaces in the most popular cities in the world, we can see some patterns and practices worth considering.

Tokyo, Japan.  A world leader in third space implementation with second-to-none comparison. Tokyo is rich in relaxation lounges, themed cafes and clubs and also parks, temples and shopping districts.

Rome, Italy. Home to historical Catholic churches providing open space for the public to operate as a market square, for tourists to visit, towns people to relax in an open space with a focal point or sit down and have a moment of self-reflection.

Seoul, Korea. Home of many creative private urban social clubs and lounges from sneaker lounges to a pool lounge and cyber café lounges to even a cryptocurrency-based lounge to allow people to find a third space in a different area of interest. 

Portland, Oregon. Rich in natural escapes such as walking and bike paths, climbing treks to windsurfing for the weekend warriors. Not only for humans but pets can also enjoy many third spaces outside of the home environment in Portland.

Considerations for Establishing Third Spaces

We cannot just go into our hood and just establish third spaces without addressing the accumulation of problems and challenges of divestment and machinations that occurred over decades in our community. We have to consider the space and the security of those spaces.

We have to identify spaces in our communities where we can consider it for a third space. Let’s look at the type of people in our neighborhood we design third spaces for.

Adults. Health and wellness such as fitness clubs have to be considered. It is important to introduce private kitchen clubs where African-Americans can learn how to cook in social groups. Cafes and coffeehouse and private organizations are also gathering points for adults to discuss entrepreneurship, community affairs and sometime politics and discourse.

Elders. These should be open spaces such as parks and walking paths. Walking paths can be designated and setup where signs are displayed to watch out for the elderly. In addition, community halls that allow the accommodate of mobile doctor trucks for health checkup and space for elder group exercise and activities are important. These are spaces that should accommodate buses from retirement centers to allow elders to leave their retirement home and enjoy the black community they lived in all of their lives.

Youth. There should be a stronger focus on trends and training when it comes to youth. Meaning for example, create a private social club with a space to learn how to produce music or create video production so the youth can express themselves as they see fit. Chillout lounges for a youth teen to sit down and relax is very important where they can chill to music while surfing and checking social media status on their mobile phone. It is important to consider both open spaces instead of enclosed spaces such as create an off-road RV track outdoors for kids to race their RV cars. A lot of urban rooftop models should have the urban youth in mind such as a rooftop tennis or street soccer field.

Families. Family-based activities such as miniature golf course or walking paths are important for family-based health-wellness. The one thing to really consider is the cost of a family is expensive to perform private third-space activities. Parks and beaches are important to allow a family perform a cookout or a picnic and these can be developed within a community even on an empty lot.

Pets. Both pet owners and pets need time away from the usual home-bound activities and the same walking path outside. It may even be possible to create a cat play place so they can have a new environment to go and relax away from their home while the owner. Open parks and areas that allow dogs to jump in water, perform running bursts should be considered in the design for allowing pets to have a quality of life in our community as well where they are too tired to be meowing and barking all night while everybody trying to sleep.

Tourists / Travelers. Third spaces will promote tourism and economic injection into a community if we create the right spaces. Open spaces like a public fountain and square to allow people to enjoy the natural sunlight or the urban landscape should be considered as a tourist attraction. Think about the number of people who visit Lafayette Square in New Orleans or the Capital Mall in Washington DC just from the open space.

It is also important to consider security – we got to get rid of the thugs and territorial gangs. The proposition is simple – either they are stakeholders in the community or they are the enemy of the community. Around the world, real cartels know they have a role to play in making a community offer a quality of life for the people in their community and they leave the parks and other third spaces off-limits. African-Americans street organizations originally knew this and we are going to have to recalibrate those in our community they better be on board with making sure third spaces succeed in our hood.

Gender identity is also important to consider. Have a place for the brothas to be brothas and sistas to be sistas and gays and binaries have their own third space as well. The more a community have spaces to accommodate everyone and gives everyone a sense a belonging, the better that community will stand to have economic stability and offer a quality of life for all.

How to Get Going

 To start implementing third spaces in our community, the following points and strategy has to be considered.

Create a Dedicated Organization. These organizations are usually called “Friends of [your hood name]” and they are an advocate group dedicated on their own accord to carry out the mission of promoting quality of life. You do not need the community input because they will either “bike shed” or act confused all the time and you have to make moves and be decisive. 

Identify Spaces in Your Hood. You have to know every commercial strip in your hood and also every abandoned space like an empty lot or abandoned business. Your goal will be to look at the location to see what type of people live nearby and what kind of third space can you establish in those locations. For example, if the empty spaces are near an elementary school, then establishing a private library would be one suggestion for kids to hang out and self-learn on types they enjoy.

Advocate for Tax Incentive for Third Space Development. Right now, so-called urban revitalization and tax-breaks and bank lending are geared towards creating fast food franchises and cell phone shops in our hood as part of economic development. Promote a campaign and political demand areas must have allocation for third space development in the black community.

Constantly Market and Educate the Public. Promote your message to the community for the need to have spaces for them to enjoy a quality of life. A place for our elders to enjoy their sunset years, a place for our kids to grow, learn, play and a place for adults to find their belonging outside of work and sleep. The community self-interest will be key to mobilizing a consensus to initiate the work needed to advance the development of third spaces in both public and private efforts.

The topic of third spaces is not new to Dream and Hustle, we been speaking about it for nearly 10 years as it relates to the black community. What we have learned is the extent third spaces have not developed or supported in African-American communities and when African-American communities become gentrification, these third spaces like Starbucks and dog parks begin to show up. It is critical for African-Americans communities to become more aware and educated of third spaces and their importance to establishing a quality of life in their community.