Parcs are a good one!

Depending on where you are, you might be able to add: sport associations, church yards, museums.

I like how you added University campuses, because I think most universities understood quite well that students need sons chill spaces to socialize and relax. Unfortunately, the rest of the world has mostly been eroding those places and aim to turn a profit out of them.

Ray Oldenburg argues that third places are important for democracy, civic engagement, and a sense of place.

So that's why America is so hostile to third places!

Maybe I'm confused about the concept but it sounds like anything can be a third space? National Park, shooting range, center of a roundabout, random bench by the road...

Museums often have free days

I wholely recommend climbing/bouldering walls. Gets you fitter, most people are super friendly and if you pick a regular day you'll meet people. Most of them do a intro to climbing course where you can meet people and then a beginners or intermediate weekly session where you can meet people and get some guidance on getting better

Axe throwing is really out there! Concerts are difficult for a third place because they are not regular.

Skate parks are good 3rd places.

Unlike other hobbies or sports, you don't necessarily need to be a member of a club, get expensive equipment or be on a specific time.

Lots of young people just hang out. There's a large overlap with various subcultures. If there's a group of skaters, they'll usually have a whole entourage of photographers, artists and musicians.

Sometimes it's a little too succesful though. Some skate parks are build in isolated areas, which can attract all kinds of scum. Then it's best to come when actual skaters are using it.

It's usually very inclusive. Nobody cares about age, gender, race or abilities. Skaters respect anyone who goes out there and tries. This is also why random scum will usually fuck off when they realize that nobody gives them attention for reving up their moped engines or whatever they do to piss off their territory.

spoiler alert: You're in one.

The wealthy class (in business and government) actively work to destroy places like this because these are the places where low income folk assemble in larger numbers... Where they can discuss unionization, political dissonance and find common ground despite previously perceived differences.

Some friends and I started a community workshop 5years ago. what started as a purely functional arrangement has become a proper third place now: meet for conversation, no expectation to spend money, there's always someone already there.

Ofc getting enough ppl as critical mass is challenging, but I can only encourage you to create your own third place.

One of the things I love about Vietnam is the use of public spaces and shared residential spaces for daily social interaction and informal gatherings.

In other words, "your third place is where you relax in public, where you encounter familiar faces and make new acquaintances."

The only place I can think of for me is a coffee shop, which costs money (and I can't go to anymore because I'm out of money). I also don't drink, so breweries and pubs are right out (as well as being hellah expensive even in 'normal' times). I'm as well not one for conversation, mostly just wanting to focus on whichever topic I'm studying at that moment.

Libraries are a good place too, but a lot of the time they also smell like body odour, dead skin and piss because housing has been commodified. Similarly I have to pack everything up and bring it with me if I want to use the bathroom, which are usually terrible experiences...

Parks would would be fine but there's always going to be noise pollution and pollution pollution from the ever-present combustion engine which makes it a quite uncomfortable and distracting for me (and sometimes downright unpleasant). As well, the weather is starting to get colder and wetter which means they'll be empty more often then not.

Small concerts and axe throwing... both cost money. Sometimes a lot of money. The axe throwing I've done cost a lot, and was just one activity to do in the arcade-like place. It was basically a restaurant with games. Concerts are also not really something I enjoy anymore.

Malls and university campuses can be great, but I'd also be remiss to leave anything on a table or something while using the bathroom, as well as all places like that being relatively far away and with malls in particular also suffering from the commodification of housing. I like going to the university, but it takes a long time to get there on my bike unless I have money for the bus.

All in all, the biggest issue for me is security. I want to simply use the bathroom or whatever without worrying that my stuff will be gone when I get back. I feel like I can do this in most cafés but doing so almost anywhere else would give me anxiety so I'm stuck with cafes that I can't afford.

*Essentially the ideal 'third-place', in my opinion, has to be free and secure. Both of these don't have to be mutually exclusive but it seems like it is, at least when society is administered by capitalistic authority structures.

This is a side-tangent from finding alternative third places (the motivation for which I fully support), but I always like to raise this when people bring up the concept: third places are not (and never really were) a thing. It was an ideal invented by a guy who had a very specific idea of what society should look like that was rooted in misogyny and patriarchy. We all should be seeking community, which is what I see in this thread, but from a planning perspective there are much better ways to think about organising our spaces than through the "third place".

Here's a very good video about it by someone far more qualified to talk about it if you want to know more: https://youtu.be/8E5MegoW2pA

For me, it's parks, and the street. I bring my children to play outside and I chat with neighbors and other parents.

Plenty of hiking trails and nature walks that I've lived near; these were free and pleasant.

Maybe redundant with university campuses: free museums (especially art and history).

I've found several game stores that host game-hours at off-peak times. These have all been free and quite pleasant.

I'll note that Malls may not work for youth anymore, I've seen a few that outright ban unaccompanied teens (which is a shame imo).

Is clubbing considered a "third place"? Me and my wife go clubbing at least twice at month, and we don't go to the same place every time, but to the same circle of DJs and producers and we recognize the people to go to the parties as us (and we know we are recognized by other people too), but we usually stay by ourselves and don't really talk with other people.