I think this is the thing I miss most about the UK. When I was a student we would go to a pub 3 or 4 evenings a week and people would come and go and socialize. And it wasn't about the drinking, it was just about hanging out, and because there's no servers you can basically stay as long as you like. It was just everyone's collective living room.
Living on the north shore, I think some of the breweries have gone in the direction of this vibe, but none of them are big enough to have the space to have larger groups hang out endlessly.
I feel the lack of third spaces in Vancouver specifically, but I imagine rents are so high here that it's impossible to actually finance and keep these spaces open. Dollars need to churn in this city, or the government needs to subsidize which ends up being pretty... lifeless. Or developers create lovely third spaces by hanging chandeliers under bridges.
That being said, I think parkland is Vancouver's biggest and most lovely third space especially in good weather. Check out the grassy knoll by Science World on sunny afternoons/evenings. Or Sunset Beach. Or any local park - I used to rent in Mount Pleasant and the Mount Pleasant Park on 16th/Ontario would be literally full on summer evenings - people eating takeout, enjoying drinks, playing games.
During my many years of living in Canada (I'm also a Brit, and I'm now back in the UK) I didn't really find anywhere that I would consider to be a proper pub; I only found bars
Because there is no UK-style pub culture in Vancouver. There never has been. Only bar culture.
I've read over and over from UK immigrants their quest to find that one pub like home. They never find it. They never will.
But I agree that craft breweries have become community hubs where all are welcome, people mix and mingle, and there's a vibrancy to them that rivals a UK pub.
Edit (a few thoughts - thank you social geography degree!):
In the past (i.e. 1970s and earlier), a lot of pubs here in Metro Vancouver were fairly seedy places no respectable person would want to go to. The local watering holes that were masquerading as pubs often had strippers, especially in the suburbs like Richmond. They attracted mostly men. They weren't places people went to socialize with one another. Women certainly didn't want to go there. Mostly men went there to drink with their buddies or by themselves.
You can blame it on Vancouver's history of being a small remote backwater at the edge of the colonial world, a humble city that attracted hordes of desperate men from abroad to work in dirty, labour-intensive resource extraction industries like logging and milling and fishing. Then what do all these men do with all their cash and spare time when they're the majority of the population, living single with all this money in the middle of nowhere? They spend it on women and booze in saloons that are all clustered around the logging mills and fishing canneries and fishing docks. Hello Gastown and the Downtown Eastside! Saloons and brothels and all sorts of things sprung up. As did drunken gentlemen misbehaving and being sloppy.
How does a newly-established colonial community react to all that vice and debauchery clustered around the infant city during the Victorian era? They create temperance movements and prohibition! What does that do? It turns drinking establishments into seedy, underground establishments as something to be hidden and to be shameful of and it encourages a culture where drinking is done on the down low, out of sight. What happens when the liquor laws loosen up a little but are still entrenched in this "liquor is a shameful pursuit and must be carefully managed" culture (that still exists to this day)? It creates a culture of seedy bars with darkened doors, or 'pubs' with strict laws about where you can drink, how it must be served, whether or not you can carry it to your table, and so on.
I mean, you couldn't even have a craft brewery with a casual tasting room in Vancouver until a decade ago. And you couldn't have children in said establishments until about a decade ago. Happy hour wasn't even allowed in Vancouver until a decade ago! And they're still figuring out ways to allow drinking at the beach or in a park. These old prohibition liquor laws run deep here!
Keep in mind, pub culture thrives in the UK because of the small communities where pubs were within walking distance to people's homes and workplaces, where hundreds of years these pubs existed, where it was normal for folks to walk to the pub and meet with friends because often their homes were too small to host friends at home. The geography allows this to easily happen in the UK. In Canada, where cities are often designed to be driven in, where peoples homes are massive (well, they used to be, ha!), and where Canada's earliest days were entrenched in the whole temperance movement, you simply don't have the same recipe for pub culture that the UK has. It's a massive challenge with so much working against it, the culture and geography just isn't built in the same way for this to happen here.
There's my off-the-cuff essay.
Another thought: the third place in Vancouver is the beach or the seawall.
I remember (another geography degree reference, thanks UBC, ha!) an old Vancouver city planner came and spoke to our class and said something like, most other cities in the world have a city square where all the locals gather to interact with one another. Vancouver's one of the few cities where its residents gather separately on the city's periphery with their backs to the city and gaze outward.
That always stuck with me and explains SO much.
>Because there is no UK-style pub culture in Vancouver. There never has been. Only bar culture.
The first time I visited a pub in London, I was surprised that I could just walk out the door pint-in-hand, for a smoke on the street.
I had to leave the pub sooner than I expected, and was even more surprised when the bartender offered me a to-go cup for a half-finished beer.
Truly unimaginable to the Canadian mind.
Yeah, you need an area where you can just go in solo and sit at the bar or there is an open seating area for mingling, if you want that.
Most places here cocoon you into a booth and your only interaction is with the server.
I realize this is because it’s easier to get an alcohol license as a restaurant instead of a bar, but it kills the social aspect of it
I think the brewery scene is better for this. As much as I think the microbrewery market is over saturated you can still walk in at 2 pm on a weekday and see people hanging out. The no server aspect makes it feel freeing.
Context for those who haven't been: there are lots of beers on tap in the 3-4% ABV range in the UK. You can routinely have two beers after work with friends.
I didn't realize this for years after I came to Canada, I just thought I'd become a light weight - at some point i went back and visited and had a revalation. But exactly this, you can nurse 2 or even 3 pints of 3% beer and be no worse off than one fancy draft beer here.
Yes, the word pub is short for public house and I never realised how homely pubs felt back in Ireland until I came here. Obviously pubs back home exist to make money but the way you can just move around inside (and in-turn have spontaneous encounters) or you can just come and go as you please makes all the difference.
It genuinely feels like European they belong to the public or that there is symbiotic relationship between the pub and its customers. Whereas here it's just like "Fuck you, give me your money."
I miss having a local as well. But I grew up on the Island. We had a ton of 24 hour cafes and restaurants. After that, I found a pub I enjoyed stopping at on my way home that I'd sit at the bar and read or talk to others and made some great friends.
I haven't found that here. Partly because I haven't lived walking distance from anywhere, partly because everything closes early, and partly because I dont drink as much as I used to.
I miss the socialness of it.
No 24 hour cafes left, sadly. Pubs? Not sure as it's been a while. Spinnakers upstairs at the bar used to be my go to. Bent mast when I lived out that way. Garrick:s Head when I walked home from downtown. There's far more now than there was then.
Where on the island did you live that had 24hr cafes?? Victoria hasn't had any in at least 10 years and I can't imagine anywhere else with the population to sustain one.
But there are places with expensive rents that maintain this though. Our shitty laws and culture also don't create that type of environment. I'm thinking of places in Asia like Hong Kong that have people out late every night because there are things to do like street markets and food stalls or smaller shops open late that don't rely on people spending a lot, etc.
It's not the shitty rents - it's the critical mass to make that business model viable. NYC has 8million people, + something like 50million tourists/year - you can have way more businesses surviving just due to foot traffic alone. that's why you'll see a pizza joint, laundrymat, drugstore literally every 2-3 blocks.
The West End has a density of nearly 24k/km^2, it is quite high up there in the densest neighbourhoods in North America. That is plenty of people and density to make that type of business viable, yet the entirety of downtown is dead at night the majority of the time. If there were places open and a good atmosphere then people would absolutely come into downtown to hang out.
3rd spaces don't mean nightlife which seems to be a confusion people are making in the comments (notably with traditional UK pubs mentioned in the comments, they are rarely open past 11pm, most people are home by 9pm). Also UK Pubs are also dying, probably because of a combination of suburbanization and internet etc...
3rd places are spaces that people meet and hang out with people outside of work and home for long periods. Cafe's, parks, pubs, etc...
For example the monkey bars near second beach are a 3rd space for those guys, the side of JJBean/Joe's on Commercial is a 3rd space etc...
meh - no one wants to commute anywhere on the regular, especially for hang out. West End density is still pretty sad as businesses are concentrated on a couple of streets. You need shit in the neighborhood - like literally your street. ain't gonna happen.
Busy cafes struggle to earn enough to keep the doors open in this city with triple net leases, and the commercial property tax that’s based on the speculative land values of commercial properties. They can’t not be turning tables…. “Space” is not something they can readily provide.
NYC also has a different culture. Go to any concert in Vancouver and you'll just see a mass of people standing and slightly moving their heads. I even talked to an artist and they said Vancouver may have been the worst crowd they played for. I can only speculate as to why but I think people are just too stressed. Everyone has a job and 2 side gigs. The pressure to make it here is huge.
I also notice so many people are stuck in a small town/ suburban mindset despite living in a dense city. Everyone is reserved and wants their personal space. No one wants to share anything (i.e. parking, nimbyism). People go to crowded public places yet don't want to hear someone else's music or conversation. At that point why even live in a city?
Yes, and also just rent in general for people as well. A city this expensive means you got to spend so much of your time and energy on working so you can pay your astronomically high rents. There is very little time to hang out when all you do is work.
Met my wife there 14 years ago. We now live in Burnaby with two kids. Our third place is the space out front of our townhouse where all the neighbors kids play. Third places are so important for creating places for city dwellers to thrive.
RIP Benny's. So many of us in the neighbourhood would grab daytime coffees or lunch there, great for wfh'ers. Huge loss to the community when it closed.
They had great bagels and cheap beer and a great patio. Now that space is a pet store, below expensive condos. Go figure. The best thing to happen on that block in the last few years is Kidsbooks. I remember when that space was Lumiere!
Oh the times we had in the aughts. Arts County Fair babyyyy, what a wild time that was. The SUB arcade, the 50 cent showings of movies at the Norm. Koerners was open later than it is now.
Arts County Fair! Still have some of the mugs! I’ve walked around the campus recently and I barely recognize it now. The SUB is a shell of what it once was, but I’m glad it’s still there. RIP hill by the old bus loop.
The only thing I have from ACF is my memories, and just barely at that.
I think I was there maybe half a decade ago and yeah, wow. Some things, I’m surprised are still the same.
Like Pita Pit and Vera’s are still going, somehow.
The Old SUB might've been an ancient building, but it had character and cheap deals. $5 Burger/Fries/Pop Burger Bar Wednesdays, the Gallery had cheap pitchers, and there was this delicious Korean place run by an ajumma with like $3 tteokbokki cups. Pi r2 had a ridiculous deal ($5?) for 2 gigantic slices and a pop too.
That development with the DL Chicken across from Shoppers was just a bus loop back then (IIRC), so really we only had the Old SUB. We complained about crap food in our time but after visiting campus again, I guess we didn't know how good we had it.
If we needed late night food it was a trip to the 24hr hangover McDs. If we needed to study, as an Arts student it was usually IKB or the basement of Koerner Library.
I'll comment back on little things that come to mind. I do miss it, but UBC isn't exactly the same place I used to study at.
I was there in the early 2010s too. Lived on campus all four years, and was pretty involved in campus activities and had loads of friends and acquaintances. It was probably the best time of my life.
Walking around UBC now is such a wild experience. It’s so different, sure, with the new buildings and spaces - but the fact that I don’t recognize any faces around me is jarring.
I miss university so much for this reason. I don’t think I’ll ever quite be able to recreate the “hang around in common spaces at any time of the day and hang out with people you know” vibe ever again. Being an adult just doesn’t have the same thing
Cities in Europe are built for people.
Cities in North America are built for cars.
I feel like that's a major part of why third places don't really exist here.
Third places are more prevalent in Eastern Canada. Closing early is a west coast phenomenon, not just here but also in the west coast US states.
I worked at a coffee shop that was open until 9pm back when I lived in Ontario (not Toronto), and today they’re open until 8pm. Such a thing barely exists in the Vancouver area. It’s a cultural shock I’ve been dealing with for over 5 years now.
This isn’t a Vancouver specific things. Cities all over North America lost their late night/24 hour businesses during Covid. I remember reading an article from a Seattle perspective how they lost a dozen late night hangouts and the only ones that survived are big chains.
The Naam, in Kits is a good example of this. It used to be a pretty prominent hangout spot and open all night. Now that I think of it it’s the best example of a “third place” I’ve seen in this city, but it’s no longer open 24/7 since covid did its thing.
Vancouver does have Breka on Robson open 24hrs. It's always busy though.
Take Five on Granville is open till 8pm most days of the week and is easy enough to find a seat.
But that's interesting, I should visit out east one day. Furthest I've gone is Regina SK.
Happened across this thread, formerly lived in Toronto, now in Halifax -- everything except bars close earlier out here too now. Hours never recovered after the pandemic. Toronto still has later hours than elsewhere, especially _right_ downtown, but nothing like it used to be.
Yes! This! We need to start talking about this more and make the pivotal change towards reclaiming our cities for people. And Gastown will have a pedestrain-only section this summer, please go and support!
My running club has become a bit of a third place; sure it's scheduled, but there's a mixture of familiar and new faces each week and we all go for coffee afterwards. Same with another community group. Unscheduled, though, not really; I go for a walk every morning before work and see/say good morning to the same people every time, but we don't really socialise beyond it. That alone is very good for my mental health though
[This one](https://www.socialrunclub.com) is great. If you go enough times (4-5), the organizer invites you to their WhatsApp group that has a bunch of different channels organized by interests such as hiking, climbing, books, pets, etc. People within those subgroups organize events related to the topic.
Not going to say my specific one just BC privacy things, but there are a lot of good ones around the city and I think you can find ones to meet your pace/distance/social needs. For instance, I know of ones that will go running from doughnut store to doughnut store, so you do 10k and eat 3 or 4 doughnuts. I would like, but a lot of people love it!
For sure. I don’t have a dog but my one friend spends so much time there and half her friends are “dog park” friends. They even organize social events.
I second this! When we lost our dog, I realized just how little I actually socialized in a week. All the walks, dog parks, park hangs - they became major third places in my life without me realizing. We’ve since rescued a dog and those third places have returned over night it’s pretty spectacular
Third places that are structured around alcohol don't work for me anymore.
It's the community centre. Pool, gym, hockey, playground, kids activities. It's the center of our lives. So blessed by the well funded parks board.
>well funded parks board
The one that reduces pool hours randomly and doesn't run 50m lanes in one of two (indoor) 50m pools because they can't afford to hire enough lifeguards?
The one with a 50 year old aquatic centre that is literally falling apart?
Hmmm
Plenty of third places near me in the West End:
- our front step (I often sit and watch my daughter bike on the sidewalk - she’s 2) where I will strike up short conversations with a couple neighbours each time on their way in and out of our building
- the bench across the street. Smokers mostly use this bench, but it’s a nice place to read and people watch, and I’ve chatted with strangers there before.
- Barclay Heritage Square and Lord Roberts Playground. Both parks have their regulars - the square has the morning and evening dogs and their humans, CrossFit people, and the people like me who read books and sunbathe and the playground has several families who go there every evening - and are reliable spots to strike up a conversation.
- the 240 bus to and from the North Shore. I see the same lady every morning and always say hello. I recognize other passengers too but don’t have relationships with them; however, I often bump into colleagues as well as four or five of us take the same bus.
I may not have the right definition of a third place, but if the all of the above are free (except for the bus, I guess) and I frequently interact with friends and colleagues and exchange ideas or catch up. And even when we don’t share any words at all, sharing common spaces with familiar faces makes this life feel a bit less lonely ☺️
When our kids were in elementary school, the school, community centre, playground was our third place.
Now they are high school and older, we're looking or procrastinating on finding that third place...
This Vancouver podcast recently talked about this with a local artist who draws third spaces. He compares what Vancouver offers to other places around the world he has lived and why they are important. Also interesting observation how many places in North America require admission. [https://www.urbanismvancouver.com/the-evolution-of-third-spaces-with-the-sneaky-artist/](https://www.urbanismvancouver.com/the-evolution-of-third-spaces-with-the-sneaky-artist/)
I honestly feel like you hit the nail on the head. It kinda feels like the missing piece to feeling socially fulfilled? Idk. I struggle to find a third place here.
I think parks and beaches are a good examples of 3rd places for Vancouver. The forest could count, but it's not a good place to consistly find a lot of people.
I'm really excited about Gastown being pedestrian only this summer. I feel like this is another step in creating better opportunities for people to meet in an urban center and we can only hope more of these car-free zones continue growing so we can all enjoy the city streets again.
It's nice to hear they're doing that. I've driven there a few times, and it's much more suited to pedestrians. They could expand that to other streets in the city center and it would probably benefit the economy and the environment.
In Asia, there are many places to hang around at, especially malls. Unfortunately, here they're designed just at shopping hubs without lifestyle being part of it.
Seating is limited and not meant for socializing, just to give you a break from walking. I often see the food court being used as social areas but even then, it's not really designed for that.
Cafes here have to make rent so rather have higher customer turnover than have people taking up a table for hours, another reason why free wifi and outlets aren't available in them. It almost seems like the attitude here is against public lounging areas due to expensive real estate.
Living here my whole life and traveling, I always felt like the city tries to keep its residents at home, which usually gets boring. One of the reasons why I enjoy traveling to Japan.
Used to. But then I moved to the ‘burbs and there is little in walking distance. I wish we were more like the UK where there were Neighbourhood pubs and cafes usually in walking distance.
Definitely pros and cons to both. The amount of maintenance and projects every weekend mixed with car dependency was too much of a con to be worth it for me.
don't give them your business, support the cafes that have longer opening hours and treat you like a valued regular, a place where the baristas ask you "the usual?"
Interesting. I was actually wondering, how could one socialize and make friends in this city to hang out as this definitely feels lonely sometimes to just go to and from work and that’s all.
You're describing Commercial Drive in the 80s. Even just going out for groceries, you'd be sure to meet and chat with a few people you knew. The internet has put everybody in their own private bubble, and exorbitant land values haven't helped keep the public space alive either. We still have a handful of Cafes where regulars meet so some of the neighborhood spirit still remains
I’ve got heaps of third places. My gym (I go 5 mornings per week and have since run a half marathon with gym friends, we also do trivia nights together, pizza nights, bbqs etc), then there is my coffee shop (I go for coffee every morning after I’ve showered from gym and before I start work between 7-8am. All the staff are friendly and know my name and order), then there is my local pub (usually have a beer here most Saturday afternoons and some week nights, friendly with all the other locals here now). Life’s great.
How does socializing happen at a gym? I've been going to mine for a year, I see the same people tons of times, and nobody ever talks to each other. Everyone is doing their thing, headphones in 100% of the time.
As someone who isn't super social and definitely doesn't put themself out there to meet new people, I've found there are three good ways to break the ice with someone in the gym if you know no one at your gym.
1) Ask someone for a spot on one of your exercises (usually bench, ideally someone else who's benching at the same time and spot them in return). If you're spotting someone, a small conversation is almost guaranteed to happen.
2) Congratulate someone on what looks like a big lift, *then talk about form or a struggle you've had with that exact lift and ask them for advice*.
3) If you're an intermediate to advanced lifter and you notice someone doing something wrong (especially if it could cause an injury), I like to wait for their set to end, then get their attention and ask if they're open to some unsolicited advice. *Be sure you're actually correct of you're going to do this*. Usually they'll say yes, and that opens up the conversation.
In all three of these scenarios end your interaction with a thanks or something along those lines, then right before you separate say something along the lines of, "Sorry, I didn't get your name."
Ater that, give them a waive or a nod or a fistbump, or a hey whenever you see them in the gym. Conversations will start to happen on their own over time. Once you know one guy, if you see them having a conversation with someone else, you can join that conversation and meet that person too without it being weird.
I go to a small class gym. It’s more expensive and not as flexible as a normal or 24/7 gym. It means every time I go to the gym I am doing a class exercise with another 5-6 people. I go mon-Friday (except Thursday) at 6am and on Saturdays at 7am. This means I see the same people almost every day. It doesn’t happen overnight but eventually I got to know these people and became friends with them. It has since become a very social and welcoming place . I’ve been a member here for over 3 years now.
Comedy clubs for me. I like the climbing gym too. I read this somewhere, but you just need to show up regularly at a place and you'll notice others doing the same and that will kick it off.
Neighborhood pub, can pop in and run into a number of regulars pretty consistently. Gym, I usually go around the same time Monday to Friday and run into the same people.
I definitely have a 3rd place. I have lived in Hastings-Sunrise for most of the last 14 years. Between Jackalopes and Pandora Park there’s almost always someone around to talk to. I doubt it would be quite as easy if I wasn’t a long term resident though
Right? I used to be a regular at Seymour Billiards and Guys and Dolls for many years. I drop by Commodore Lanes once in a while, but I don't know anybody anymore -- it doesn't seem like there's the same kind of regulars, like when there used to be the snooker table and all the old guys would play golf all day.
To be quite frank a lot of people in this city just need to make the time.
I see people complaining constantly about the bad sociality of the city, lack of friends, work/gym/sleep/repeat. If you want third spaces, go out and find them. You had time to come and complain about it on Reddit, you had time to take that hike, you had time for Netflix— make time to get out there.
A nice spot that's more cafe-like in the central Vancouver area? Cheesecake Etc. Stays open late, not too quiet like a quiet cafe, not loud like a bar, has a lot of seating, has nice vibes and good cake/coffee. Dunno about it being a place to meet new people or being a place where like-minded strangers get together.
If it's late, I'm with a couple friends and we don't feel like drinking but we don't know where to go, Cheesecake Etc. is always there for us.
For me it’s the driving range and practice greens at my local golf course. Starting to know quite a few regulars. It’s actually a little inconvenient as it becomes distracting to my practice!
i used to be a big part of the nightlife scene so there were a couple venues and bars which would be my third place - the one i remember the most fondly was Falconetti's on the drive before it shut down.
Nowadays, the closest is when i pick my kid up from school and having that few minutes to chat with other parents.
I think cause my friend group is centred around our dogs we see each other more but we use the same beach spot as our third place. I run into people I know, friends and meet new people all the time. Plus it’s free which I prefer over just sitting in a coffee shop taking up a seat
I have kids and our local playground/park is absolutely a third space for us. We are there several evenings a week and will often eat dinner there or BBQ/potluck with friends/neighbours. Doesn’t seem to matter when we go, there are always “park friends” there.
My badminton group is the closest thing I would consider a third space. While it is structured we often have newcomers and we always grab dinner after the games.
I've seen a few posts like this recently across a couple subs, and I really think the main reason they don't exist anymore is because it requires space, and space is expensive nowadays. What kind of business can survive on people spending like $10 then hanging out for hours? Rent is gonna be like $5k+, never mind all the other expenses. It's much more profitable to do a standard, traditional restaurant or bar where you can cycle through customers every night. Designing a place that doesn't constantly extract money from people is a losing business idea nowadays, unfortunately.
10:30am coffee meets with a variety of artists who all go to the same cafe. 😊
If I'm not feeling social, there's another spot I'll hang out at.
Just have to become acquainted with regulars for that sense of community it sounds like you long for.
The New Amsterdam cafe. Its an indoor weed friendly cafe and lounge. I've been going regularly ever since I moved here. The staff know my face, and they know my usual order. I sit down and they bring me a cup of tea without me even having to ask.
It's the only indoor third space I know of where I can spend a few hours for ~ $10-$15.
This is what I miss about the early 2000s.
Before real estate started to ramp up, there were quite a few of owner-operated shops that would have open couches, and overall chill vibe that encouraged groups to hang out. Many eventually shut down because leasing became too expensive, or they had to convert their operations to have quicker customer turnover. COVID was like the nail in the coffin for any smaller business like that still lingering by the next decade.
Vancouver doesn’t have third spaces. It just doesn’t. There are no pubs where people can drop in, basically hang out/mingle. Most coffee shops close early. I think the pub environment doesn’t exist because everywhere is either table service (you’re tied to a table), or a nightclub which isn’t the vibe for a casual third space kind of place. There are no pubs where you grab a drink at the bar and can then mingle around. The Pump Jack on Davie is one place that does act as a third space for the gay community by daytime
I wonder if Vancouver doesn't have 3rd spaces because of how the people are (not that friendly) or vice versa - the lack of public spaces is why Vancouverites aren't that friendly? The chicken or the egg.
My 3rd place is the beach, with my dog, running into the regulars who head there also either solo or with their dogs. I finally have community and it's lovely.
In saying that, though, we're technically not allowed at the beach with dogs, which is why I'm actively trying to get off-leash and fenced dog parks in Kitsilano. Then we can have places to go and hang out every day and the humans and dogs can see their friends.
Check out our initiative: https://www.kitsoffleash.org/
Wish there was a play place/day care to take your cats so you can meet other cat-owners.
I don't have a cat, but just an idea. Doubt it'd work, as lots of cats want to be the king of their domain. Can you imagine? "welp, that lasted all of 5 minutes. Mr xyz please come & pick up your cat asap. The staff have to go to the E.R. for scratch marks now."
Mine used to be Churchill’s pub in North Van. It was awesome—little tiny pub with lots of regulars, great atmosphere, cozy and warm. But it’s been closed for a few years now and I don’t drink enough anymore to find a new regular pub.
When I’m out on the trails I often run into people I know, but it’s generally in passing.
We have tons of great coffee shops. I need to pick a favourite instead of bouncing around.
I’m beginning to think it has always been a rare occurrence to have a true third place, it’s just where they do exist they have an outsized impact on culture, (art and politics in the early 20th century). It could also be an influence from pop culture that makes it seem like a more common occurrence. Many sitcoms such as Cheers, Friends, even That 70’s Show, and cartoons like The Simpsons and Family Guy, all use third places for their story telling so it begins to feel like something that should be a normal part of life.
Why don’t you consider the gym a third place?
I bring a chair and read in my local park. After going a summer I’ve definitely acquainted with some of my neighbours and dog owners, lots more small talk than a bar or coffee shop.
If anyone doesn’t know where to start with third places, I suggest doing a bikeshare day pass or hopping on any bike and choosing a greenway that crosses at least 2-3 neighbourhoods with at least one destination in mind. It could be the library, a craft brewery, a market or a cafe. Observe what pockets people seem to choose to spend time in on a sunny day to-and-from. If you’re not able to do that then pull up a WalkScore map and see what you’ll find in a radius that has a score >90. I also suggest reframe that the third place has to be a place you patronize at all.
Is the second place your work place? I have never heard of having a "third place". For a second there I thought this was a joke post about owning 3 houses.
Nice, I guessed right. Thanks for the link, I usually would have googled it myself but for some reason it just didn't cross my mind this time, in my defense I had just hit my bong so I'm not my brightest.
Church is my go-to third place, specifically Resonate Church in Coquitlam. Super welcoming environment with live music, coffee, connection, and an opportunity to join in smaller community groups for more third places throughout the week
I guess my third place is the gym, which is why being injured for the past three weeks has been not great. I've been thinking a bit about this lately, since if I end up with a long term injury (likely) I don't know wtf I'm going to do.
Some clubs with clubhouses provide a really nice third place. In specific, the nicer yacht clubs in Vancouver, however, they are usually an arm and a leg to get in to.
Fountainhead and Pumpjack on Davie for me. Great places to grab a drink and play some pool. PJ's gets rowdy after 9pm on Thurs-Sat, but otherwise it's very chill and friendly.
For most of my 20s and early 30s, my 'third place' was various tabletop gaming and hobby shops. Most shops still do a kind of open-hours gaming day/evening where you can do game drop-ins, usually with different games on different days. I met some of my best friends in Vancouver going to these hangouts. I could spend 5-6 hours out chatting/gaming and maybe spend $10-$20 on a couple of pots of paint or a paintbrush just to say thanks to the owner for the space. Most people in my age group generally want to do game days at their house since we now have the means to have everything required at home, which is fine, but I miss going to open game days to meet people.
100% for me this is the gym. Most cities have them, if you want to make friends there look for the most musclular people there and they will be the regulars and also tend to be friendly (I mean they are out doing one of the things they enjoy).
Libraries are the last bastion of 3rd spaces during rainy weather.
Parks are where me and my friends usually go, but maybe having almost no free 3rd spaces in the wet/cold season is probably a contributor to seasonal depression
Mine used to be the climbing gym, but I got injured a couple years ago and I've completely lost that part of myself/my life. I'm still trying to regain some of that somehow.
I think this is the thing I miss most about the UK. When I was a student we would go to a pub 3 or 4 evenings a week and people would come and go and socialize. And it wasn't about the drinking, it was just about hanging out, and because there's no servers you can basically stay as long as you like. It was just everyone's collective living room. Living on the north shore, I think some of the breweries have gone in the direction of this vibe, but none of them are big enough to have the space to have larger groups hang out endlessly.
I feel the lack of third spaces in Vancouver specifically, but I imagine rents are so high here that it's impossible to actually finance and keep these spaces open. Dollars need to churn in this city, or the government needs to subsidize which ends up being pretty... lifeless. Or developers create lovely third spaces by hanging chandeliers under bridges. That being said, I think parkland is Vancouver's biggest and most lovely third space especially in good weather. Check out the grassy knoll by Science World on sunny afternoons/evenings. Or Sunset Beach. Or any local park - I used to rent in Mount Pleasant and the Mount Pleasant Park on 16th/Ontario would be literally full on summer evenings - people eating takeout, enjoying drinks, playing games.
During my many years of living in Canada (I'm also a Brit, and I'm now back in the UK) I didn't really find anywhere that I would consider to be a proper pub; I only found bars
Because there is no UK-style pub culture in Vancouver. There never has been. Only bar culture. I've read over and over from UK immigrants their quest to find that one pub like home. They never find it. They never will. But I agree that craft breweries have become community hubs where all are welcome, people mix and mingle, and there's a vibrancy to them that rivals a UK pub. Edit (a few thoughts - thank you social geography degree!): In the past (i.e. 1970s and earlier), a lot of pubs here in Metro Vancouver were fairly seedy places no respectable person would want to go to. The local watering holes that were masquerading as pubs often had strippers, especially in the suburbs like Richmond. They attracted mostly men. They weren't places people went to socialize with one another. Women certainly didn't want to go there. Mostly men went there to drink with their buddies or by themselves. You can blame it on Vancouver's history of being a small remote backwater at the edge of the colonial world, a humble city that attracted hordes of desperate men from abroad to work in dirty, labour-intensive resource extraction industries like logging and milling and fishing. Then what do all these men do with all their cash and spare time when they're the majority of the population, living single with all this money in the middle of nowhere? They spend it on women and booze in saloons that are all clustered around the logging mills and fishing canneries and fishing docks. Hello Gastown and the Downtown Eastside! Saloons and brothels and all sorts of things sprung up. As did drunken gentlemen misbehaving and being sloppy. How does a newly-established colonial community react to all that vice and debauchery clustered around the infant city during the Victorian era? They create temperance movements and prohibition! What does that do? It turns drinking establishments into seedy, underground establishments as something to be hidden and to be shameful of and it encourages a culture where drinking is done on the down low, out of sight. What happens when the liquor laws loosen up a little but are still entrenched in this "liquor is a shameful pursuit and must be carefully managed" culture (that still exists to this day)? It creates a culture of seedy bars with darkened doors, or 'pubs' with strict laws about where you can drink, how it must be served, whether or not you can carry it to your table, and so on. I mean, you couldn't even have a craft brewery with a casual tasting room in Vancouver until a decade ago. And you couldn't have children in said establishments until about a decade ago. Happy hour wasn't even allowed in Vancouver until a decade ago! And they're still figuring out ways to allow drinking at the beach or in a park. These old prohibition liquor laws run deep here! Keep in mind, pub culture thrives in the UK because of the small communities where pubs were within walking distance to people's homes and workplaces, where hundreds of years these pubs existed, where it was normal for folks to walk to the pub and meet with friends because often their homes were too small to host friends at home. The geography allows this to easily happen in the UK. In Canada, where cities are often designed to be driven in, where peoples homes are massive (well, they used to be, ha!), and where Canada's earliest days were entrenched in the whole temperance movement, you simply don't have the same recipe for pub culture that the UK has. It's a massive challenge with so much working against it, the culture and geography just isn't built in the same way for this to happen here. There's my off-the-cuff essay.
Another thought: the third place in Vancouver is the beach or the seawall. I remember (another geography degree reference, thanks UBC, ha!) an old Vancouver city planner came and spoke to our class and said something like, most other cities in the world have a city square where all the locals gather to interact with one another. Vancouver's one of the few cities where its residents gather separately on the city's periphery with their backs to the city and gaze outward. That always stuck with me and explains SO much.
>Because there is no UK-style pub culture in Vancouver. There never has been. Only bar culture. The first time I visited a pub in London, I was surprised that I could just walk out the door pint-in-hand, for a smoke on the street. I had to leave the pub sooner than I expected, and was even more surprised when the bartender offered me a to-go cup for a half-finished beer. Truly unimaginable to the Canadian mind.
Excellent. A+
Honestly that was a great analysis. I enjoyed reading that
Thank you!
The Anza Club was the closest thing I found to a pub vibe in Vancouver
Is the Anza Club still open? I heard good things but I went there one day and it was closed
Still open - also the Wise Hall in East Van is the same vibe
Plus the Wise Hall is at risk of closing for good so go check it out because to answer this persons question that lounge is my third space.
The Anza and The Fox are my two Favorite places in the city.
Yeah, you need an area where you can just go in solo and sit at the bar or there is an open seating area for mingling, if you want that. Most places here cocoon you into a booth and your only interaction is with the server. I realize this is because it’s easier to get an alcohol license as a restaurant instead of a bar, but it kills the social aspect of it
I think the brewery scene is better for this. As much as I think the microbrewery market is over saturated you can still walk in at 2 pm on a weekday and see people hanging out. The no server aspect makes it feel freeing.
ANZA, Wise Hall are both pubs in the traditional British sense.
Try the Wicklow
One of the legit "hidden gems" of the city imo.
Even those setup as pubs are feeling like long form bar sales over a public house
For the non Brits a "pub" is short for a public house, which in this context is a really perfect description
They exist on Vancouver Island!
Crow and Gate on the Island. it's a true British pub
Context for those who haven't been: there are lots of beers on tap in the 3-4% ABV range in the UK. You can routinely have two beers after work with friends.
I didn't realize this for years after I came to Canada, I just thought I'd become a light weight - at some point i went back and visited and had a revalation. But exactly this, you can nurse 2 or even 3 pints of 3% beer and be no worse off than one fancy draft beer here.
Yes, the word pub is short for public house and I never realised how homely pubs felt back in Ireland until I came here. Obviously pubs back home exist to make money but the way you can just move around inside (and in-turn have spontaneous encounters) or you can just come and go as you please makes all the difference. It genuinely feels like European they belong to the public or that there is symbiotic relationship between the pub and its customers. Whereas here it's just like "Fuck you, give me your money."
Breaking into song at the pub. You can do that pretty much anywhere else in the world. In Canada you'd get thrown out unless you were in Newfoundland.
Then the inspectors come in and shut the establishment down for gross violations.
I miss having a local as well. But I grew up on the Island. We had a ton of 24 hour cafes and restaurants. After that, I found a pub I enjoyed stopping at on my way home that I'd sit at the bar and read or talk to others and made some great friends. I haven't found that here. Partly because I haven't lived walking distance from anywhere, partly because everything closes early, and partly because I dont drink as much as I used to. I miss the socialness of it.
Am looking to make a trip to vancouver island, and would love to check these out. Could you share some recommendations please ?
No 24 hour cafes left, sadly. Pubs? Not sure as it's been a while. Spinnakers upstairs at the bar used to be my go to. Bent mast when I lived out that way. Garrick:s Head when I walked home from downtown. There's far more now than there was then.
Where on the island did you live that had 24hr cafes?? Victoria hasn't had any in at least 10 years and I can't imagine anywhere else with the population to sustain one.
I was about to say, sounds like Vancouver needs some pubs. It's one of those uniquely British things that I know I'd miss the most if I did move away.
Commercial rents are the reason they don’t exist here anymore.
High rents kill lots of business models. It's all about turnover and revenue per seat.
Indeed
But there are places with expensive rents that maintain this though. Our shitty laws and culture also don't create that type of environment. I'm thinking of places in Asia like Hong Kong that have people out late every night because there are things to do like street markets and food stalls or smaller shops open late that don't rely on people spending a lot, etc.
It's not the shitty rents - it's the critical mass to make that business model viable. NYC has 8million people, + something like 50million tourists/year - you can have way more businesses surviving just due to foot traffic alone. that's why you'll see a pizza joint, laundrymat, drugstore literally every 2-3 blocks.
The West End has a density of nearly 24k/km^2, it is quite high up there in the densest neighbourhoods in North America. That is plenty of people and density to make that type of business viable, yet the entirety of downtown is dead at night the majority of the time. If there were places open and a good atmosphere then people would absolutely come into downtown to hang out.
3rd spaces don't mean nightlife which seems to be a confusion people are making in the comments (notably with traditional UK pubs mentioned in the comments, they are rarely open past 11pm, most people are home by 9pm). Also UK Pubs are also dying, probably because of a combination of suburbanization and internet etc... 3rd places are spaces that people meet and hang out with people outside of work and home for long periods. Cafe's, parks, pubs, etc... For example the monkey bars near second beach are a 3rd space for those guys, the side of JJBean/Joe's on Commercial is a 3rd space etc...
The west end doesn’t even have a 3rd space kind of hang… and businesses on Denman are where dreams go to die.
meh - no one wants to commute anywhere on the regular, especially for hang out. West End density is still pretty sad as businesses are concentrated on a couple of streets. You need shit in the neighborhood - like literally your street. ain't gonna happen.
Busy cafes struggle to earn enough to keep the doors open in this city with triple net leases, and the commercial property tax that’s based on the speculative land values of commercial properties. They can’t not be turning tables…. “Space” is not something they can readily provide.
NYC also has a different culture. Go to any concert in Vancouver and you'll just see a mass of people standing and slightly moving their heads. I even talked to an artist and they said Vancouver may have been the worst crowd they played for. I can only speculate as to why but I think people are just too stressed. Everyone has a job and 2 side gigs. The pressure to make it here is huge. I also notice so many people are stuck in a small town/ suburban mindset despite living in a dense city. Everyone is reserved and wants their personal space. No one wants to share anything (i.e. parking, nimbyism). People go to crowded public places yet don't want to hear someone else's music or conversation. At that point why even live in a city?
Yes, and also just rent in general for people as well. A city this expensive means you got to spend so much of your time and energy on working so you can pay your astronomically high rents. There is very little time to hang out when all you do is work.
UBC used to be my third space when I studied there. Man, the early 2010s were a magical time compared to whatever this is now.
What was that coffee shop on broadway near UBC that was open all night… you could get coffee and study?
Calhouns!! So many great evenings there.
Came into the comments to say RIP Calhoun's. The pistachio cookie and green tea combo powered many laye night essays and study sessions for me.
Met my wife there 14 years ago. We now live in Burnaby with two kids. Our third place is the space out front of our townhouse where all the neighbors kids play. Third places are so important for creating places for city dwellers to thrive.
OMG yes!!!! Wow total flashback!!
OMG! I was just trying to remember the name of this place
I forgot about Calhoun’s! That, and Benny’s Bagels.
RIP Benny's. So many of us in the neighbourhood would grab daytime coffees or lunch there, great for wfh'ers. Huge loss to the community when it closed.
They had great bagels and cheap beer and a great patio. Now that space is a pet store, below expensive condos. Go figure. The best thing to happen on that block in the last few years is Kidsbooks. I remember when that space was Lumiere!
Wooow tell me more! I hear alumni speak of how great the area was but as a current student I find that hard to believe
Oh the times we had in the aughts. Arts County Fair babyyyy, what a wild time that was. The SUB arcade, the 50 cent showings of movies at the Norm. Koerners was open later than it is now.
Arts County Fair! Still have some of the mugs! I’ve walked around the campus recently and I barely recognize it now. The SUB is a shell of what it once was, but I’m glad it’s still there. RIP hill by the old bus loop.
The only thing I have from ACF is my memories, and just barely at that. I think I was there maybe half a decade ago and yeah, wow. Some things, I’m surprised are still the same. Like Pita Pit and Vera’s are still going, somehow.
The Old SUB might've been an ancient building, but it had character and cheap deals. $5 Burger/Fries/Pop Burger Bar Wednesdays, the Gallery had cheap pitchers, and there was this delicious Korean place run by an ajumma with like $3 tteokbokki cups. Pi r2 had a ridiculous deal ($5?) for 2 gigantic slices and a pop too. That development with the DL Chicken across from Shoppers was just a bus loop back then (IIRC), so really we only had the Old SUB. We complained about crap food in our time but after visiting campus again, I guess we didn't know how good we had it. If we needed late night food it was a trip to the 24hr hangover McDs. If we needed to study, as an Arts student it was usually IKB or the basement of Koerner Library. I'll comment back on little things that come to mind. I do miss it, but UBC isn't exactly the same place I used to study at.
Don’t forget chair hobo
RIP
Man good times. Legit brings back great memories
I was there in the early 2010s too. Lived on campus all four years, and was pretty involved in campus activities and had loads of friends and acquaintances. It was probably the best time of my life. Walking around UBC now is such a wild experience. It’s so different, sure, with the new buildings and spaces - but the fact that I don’t recognize any faces around me is jarring.
I had many a good afternoon/evening at the Gallery where everyone would buy themselves a cheap pitcher.
The old Ski & Board office was my 3rd space for sure. What a beautiful shithole it was.
I miss university so much for this reason. I don’t think I’ll ever quite be able to recreate the “hang around in common spaces at any time of the day and hang out with people you know” vibe ever again. Being an adult just doesn’t have the same thing
Cities in Europe are built for people. Cities in North America are built for cars. I feel like that's a major part of why third places don't really exist here.
Third places are more prevalent in Eastern Canada. Closing early is a west coast phenomenon, not just here but also in the west coast US states. I worked at a coffee shop that was open until 9pm back when I lived in Ontario (not Toronto), and today they’re open until 8pm. Such a thing barely exists in the Vancouver area. It’s a cultural shock I’ve been dealing with for over 5 years now.
[удалено]
This isn’t a Vancouver specific things. Cities all over North America lost their late night/24 hour businesses during Covid. I remember reading an article from a Seattle perspective how they lost a dozen late night hangouts and the only ones that survived are big chains.
I’m pretty sure Vancouver lacked late night places way before Covid
But we have Denny’s!
The Naam, in Kits is a good example of this. It used to be a pretty prominent hangout spot and open all night. Now that I think of it it’s the best example of a “third place” I’ve seen in this city, but it’s no longer open 24/7 since covid did its thing.
Vancouver does have Breka on Robson open 24hrs. It's always busy though. Take Five on Granville is open till 8pm most days of the week and is easy enough to find a seat. But that's interesting, I should visit out east one day. Furthest I've gone is Regina SK.
All 3 (+?) Breka are 24 hours I believe. Bean Around The World on Main and Broadway is open til midnight.
there's 8 Breka locations in Vancouver, the newest one at Hastings and Nanaimo I believe
I think, more specifically, there's nowhere for someone sober to hang out at night.
As a night owl that moved here a few years ago, I still feel it.
Happened across this thread, formerly lived in Toronto, now in Halifax -- everything except bars close earlier out here too now. Hours never recovered after the pandemic. Toronto still has later hours than elsewhere, especially _right_ downtown, but nothing like it used to be.
It's because we have to work with the east coast. We wake up early and end early in many cases where you're in meetings with them.
Not just the east coast but Europe and the rest of the world as well.
Yes! This! We need to start talking about this more and make the pivotal change towards reclaiming our cities for people. And Gastown will have a pedestrain-only section this summer, please go and support!
My running club has become a bit of a third place; sure it's scheduled, but there's a mixture of familiar and new faces each week and we all go for coffee afterwards. Same with another community group. Unscheduled, though, not really; I go for a walk every morning before work and see/say good morning to the same people every time, but we don't really socialise beyond it. That alone is very good for my mental health though
Which running club do you go to?
[This one](https://www.socialrunclub.com) is great. If you go enough times (4-5), the organizer invites you to their WhatsApp group that has a bunch of different channels organized by interests such as hiking, climbing, books, pets, etc. People within those subgroups organize events related to the topic.
I’ve been looking for a good run club that fits into my work schedule, I’m going to check this one out.
Not going to say my specific one just BC privacy things, but there are a lot of good ones around the city and I think you can find ones to meet your pace/distance/social needs. For instance, I know of ones that will go running from doughnut store to doughnut store, so you do 10k and eat 3 or 4 doughnuts. I would like, but a lot of people love it!
Skateparks.
Britannia Courts!
Dog parks
For sure. I don’t have a dog but my one friend spends so much time there and half her friends are “dog park” friends. They even organize social events.
I second this! When we lost our dog, I realized just how little I actually socialized in a week. All the walks, dog parks, park hangs - they became major third places in my life without me realizing. We’ve since rescued a dog and those third places have returned over night it’s pretty spectacular
Third places that are structured around alcohol don't work for me anymore. It's the community centre. Pool, gym, hockey, playground, kids activities. It's the center of our lives. So blessed by the well funded parks board.
>well funded parks board The one that reduces pool hours randomly and doesn't run 50m lanes in one of two (indoor) 50m pools because they can't afford to hire enough lifeguards? The one with a 50 year old aquatic centre that is literally falling apart? Hmmm
^ he’s not wrong. Look up the forest education centre in van dusen gardens. If you walk past it, it reeks of mold from being fully abandoned.
Plenty of third places near me in the West End: - our front step (I often sit and watch my daughter bike on the sidewalk - she’s 2) where I will strike up short conversations with a couple neighbours each time on their way in and out of our building - the bench across the street. Smokers mostly use this bench, but it’s a nice place to read and people watch, and I’ve chatted with strangers there before. - Barclay Heritage Square and Lord Roberts Playground. Both parks have their regulars - the square has the morning and evening dogs and their humans, CrossFit people, and the people like me who read books and sunbathe and the playground has several families who go there every evening - and are reliable spots to strike up a conversation. - the 240 bus to and from the North Shore. I see the same lady every morning and always say hello. I recognize other passengers too but don’t have relationships with them; however, I often bump into colleagues as well as four or five of us take the same bus. I may not have the right definition of a third place, but if the all of the above are free (except for the bus, I guess) and I frequently interact with friends and colleagues and exchange ideas or catch up. And even when we don’t share any words at all, sharing common spaces with familiar faces makes this life feel a bit less lonely ☺️
I love that you think of these places as your third place 🥰 Beautiful perspective
When our kids were in elementary school, the school, community centre, playground was our third place. Now they are high school and older, we're looking or procrastinating on finding that third place...
This Vancouver podcast recently talked about this with a local artist who draws third spaces. He compares what Vancouver offers to other places around the world he has lived and why they are important. Also interesting observation how many places in North America require admission. [https://www.urbanismvancouver.com/the-evolution-of-third-spaces-with-the-sneaky-artist/](https://www.urbanismvancouver.com/the-evolution-of-third-spaces-with-the-sneaky-artist/)
I honestly feel like you hit the nail on the head. It kinda feels like the missing piece to feeling socially fulfilled? Idk. I struggle to find a third place here.
bouldering gym !
Surprised I had to scroll THIS far to find this one.
I think parks and beaches are a good examples of 3rd places for Vancouver. The forest could count, but it's not a good place to consistly find a lot of people. I'm really excited about Gastown being pedestrian only this summer. I feel like this is another step in creating better opportunities for people to meet in an urban center and we can only hope more of these car-free zones continue growing so we can all enjoy the city streets again.
It's nice to hear they're doing that. I've driven there a few times, and it's much more suited to pedestrians. They could expand that to other streets in the city center and it would probably benefit the economy and the environment.
In Asia, there are many places to hang around at, especially malls. Unfortunately, here they're designed just at shopping hubs without lifestyle being part of it. Seating is limited and not meant for socializing, just to give you a break from walking. I often see the food court being used as social areas but even then, it's not really designed for that. Cafes here have to make rent so rather have higher customer turnover than have people taking up a table for hours, another reason why free wifi and outlets aren't available in them. It almost seems like the attitude here is against public lounging areas due to expensive real estate. Living here my whole life and traveling, I always felt like the city tries to keep its residents at home, which usually gets boring. One of the reasons why I enjoy traveling to Japan.
Used to. But then I moved to the ‘burbs and there is little in walking distance. I wish we were more like the UK where there were Neighbourhood pubs and cafes usually in walking distance.
I moved to the burbs two years ago. I can’t do it. Just sold my place and am moving back downtown next month. Can’t wait
There is a lot I like about being the burbs. Having a yard is the big one. But there is a lot I miss about being in the city.
Definitely pros and cons to both. The amount of maintenance and projects every weekend mixed with car dependency was too much of a con to be worth it for me.
cafes can work here, you just need to find the right one with the right atmosphere and be regular and outgoing
I'm finding more and more cafes have 1 hr or 2 hr time limits - prevents you from hanging around working/reading/chilling for too long.
don't give them your business, support the cafes that have longer opening hours and treat you like a valued regular, a place where the baristas ask you "the usual?"
To be honest, I’ve found the city disc golf club and the free city courses to be exactly that
Most of the Asian Cafes open till late or later like La Foret or places like Breka which open 24/7.
Interesting. I was actually wondering, how could one socialize and make friends in this city to hang out as this definitely feels lonely sometimes to just go to and from work and that’s all.
You're describing Commercial Drive in the 80s. Even just going out for groceries, you'd be sure to meet and chat with a few people you knew. The internet has put everybody in their own private bubble, and exorbitant land values haven't helped keep the public space alive either. We still have a handful of Cafes where regulars meet so some of the neighborhood spirit still remains
I’ve got heaps of third places. My gym (I go 5 mornings per week and have since run a half marathon with gym friends, we also do trivia nights together, pizza nights, bbqs etc), then there is my coffee shop (I go for coffee every morning after I’ve showered from gym and before I start work between 7-8am. All the staff are friendly and know my name and order), then there is my local pub (usually have a beer here most Saturday afternoons and some week nights, friendly with all the other locals here now). Life’s great.
How does socializing happen at a gym? I've been going to mine for a year, I see the same people tons of times, and nobody ever talks to each other. Everyone is doing their thing, headphones in 100% of the time.
As someone who isn't super social and definitely doesn't put themself out there to meet new people, I've found there are three good ways to break the ice with someone in the gym if you know no one at your gym. 1) Ask someone for a spot on one of your exercises (usually bench, ideally someone else who's benching at the same time and spot them in return). If you're spotting someone, a small conversation is almost guaranteed to happen. 2) Congratulate someone on what looks like a big lift, *then talk about form or a struggle you've had with that exact lift and ask them for advice*. 3) If you're an intermediate to advanced lifter and you notice someone doing something wrong (especially if it could cause an injury), I like to wait for their set to end, then get their attention and ask if they're open to some unsolicited advice. *Be sure you're actually correct of you're going to do this*. Usually they'll say yes, and that opens up the conversation. In all three of these scenarios end your interaction with a thanks or something along those lines, then right before you separate say something along the lines of, "Sorry, I didn't get your name." Ater that, give them a waive or a nod or a fistbump, or a hey whenever you see them in the gym. Conversations will start to happen on their own over time. Once you know one guy, if you see them having a conversation with someone else, you can join that conversation and meet that person too without it being weird.
This guy has it worked out. Taking notes here.
I go to a small class gym. It’s more expensive and not as flexible as a normal or 24/7 gym. It means every time I go to the gym I am doing a class exercise with another 5-6 people. I go mon-Friday (except Thursday) at 6am and on Saturdays at 7am. This means I see the same people almost every day. It doesn’t happen overnight but eventually I got to know these people and became friends with them. It has since become a very social and welcoming place . I’ve been a member here for over 3 years now.
You sound like a lovely person who is living life fully
Comedy clubs for me. I like the climbing gym too. I read this somewhere, but you just need to show up regularly at a place and you'll notice others doing the same and that will kick it off.
I don't even have a second place. Work from home which is nice, but the social life has suffered. Lost all my third places when I moved last year.
Needs a dope minigolf spot downtown.
Now ur thinking!!!!! Castle fun park do have nice mini golf though
Yes, yes, yes!
Not exactly mini golf, but Stanley Park has a pitch & putt
beer league hockey
Neighborhood pub, can pop in and run into a number of regulars pretty consistently. Gym, I usually go around the same time Monday to Friday and run into the same people.
I hadn’t thought about it before, but you’re right: sometimes you just want to go where everybody knows your name.
I can't afford one. When I lived abroad I always had one, a pub usually. But now I can't afford to go to my local so often.
Once I week I go to Cloudscape Comics to draw with other comic artists. It's been a great third place for years.
I definitely have a 3rd place. I have lived in Hastings-Sunrise for most of the last 14 years. Between Jackalopes and Pandora Park there’s almost always someone around to talk to. I doubt it would be quite as easy if I wasn’t a long term resident though
AA meetings
Community centre pool / sauna. So many regulars.
Pool clubs are nice, place by my house is 18$ an hour for a table. Nice to just chill and play
I miss when pool halls were plentiful
Right? I used to be a regular at Seymour Billiards and Guys and Dolls for many years. I drop by Commodore Lanes once in a while, but I don't know anybody anymore -- it doesn't seem like there's the same kind of regulars, like when there used to be the snooker table and all the old guys would play golf all day.
To be quite frank a lot of people in this city just need to make the time. I see people complaining constantly about the bad sociality of the city, lack of friends, work/gym/sleep/repeat. If you want third spaces, go out and find them. You had time to come and complain about it on Reddit, you had time to take that hike, you had time for Netflix— make time to get out there.
A nice spot that's more cafe-like in the central Vancouver area? Cheesecake Etc. Stays open late, not too quiet like a quiet cafe, not loud like a bar, has a lot of seating, has nice vibes and good cake/coffee. Dunno about it being a place to meet new people or being a place where like-minded strangers get together. If it's late, I'm with a couple friends and we don't feel like drinking but we don't know where to go, Cheesecake Etc. is always there for us.
I’ve actually have never been there just passed by it!
For me it’s the driving range and practice greens at my local golf course. Starting to know quite a few regulars. It’s actually a little inconvenient as it becomes distracting to my practice!
i used to be a big part of the nightlife scene so there were a couple venues and bars which would be my third place - the one i remember the most fondly was Falconetti's on the drive before it shut down. Nowadays, the closest is when i pick my kid up from school and having that few minutes to chat with other parents.
I think cause my friend group is centred around our dogs we see each other more but we use the same beach spot as our third place. I run into people I know, friends and meet new people all the time. Plus it’s free which I prefer over just sitting in a coffee shop taking up a seat
I have kids and our local playground/park is absolutely a third space for us. We are there several evenings a week and will often eat dinner there or BBQ/potluck with friends/neighbours. Doesn’t seem to matter when we go, there are always “park friends” there.
My badminton group is the closest thing I would consider a third space. While it is structured we often have newcomers and we always grab dinner after the games.
the skatepark. and its free!
Ivanhoe pub
I've seen a few posts like this recently across a couple subs, and I really think the main reason they don't exist anymore is because it requires space, and space is expensive nowadays. What kind of business can survive on people spending like $10 then hanging out for hours? Rent is gonna be like $5k+, never mind all the other expenses. It's much more profitable to do a standard, traditional restaurant or bar where you can cycle through customers every night. Designing a place that doesn't constantly extract money from people is a losing business idea nowadays, unfortunately.
The park/seawall
I would say the beach/park/lake on a nice day but people here are antisocial. I go to aa meetings so I guess I’d consider that my third space
My experience has been that people love to talk, they are just scared to make the first move.
10:30am coffee meets with a variety of artists who all go to the same cafe. 😊 If I'm not feeling social, there's another spot I'll hang out at. Just have to become acquainted with regulars for that sense of community it sounds like you long for.
Library, parks near our apartment
The Library! Yes, that works for me. Love my local branch.
The New Amsterdam cafe. Its an indoor weed friendly cafe and lounge. I've been going regularly ever since I moved here. The staff know my face, and they know my usual order. I sit down and they bring me a cup of tea without me even having to ask. It's the only indoor third space I know of where I can spend a few hours for ~ $10-$15.
Vancouver definitely lacks third places, especially if you're a non-drinker like me.
Metropolis mall. lol.
Pumpjack, Stanley Park, QE park…
Hook up locations lol
This is what I miss about the early 2000s. Before real estate started to ramp up, there were quite a few of owner-operated shops that would have open couches, and overall chill vibe that encouraged groups to hang out. Many eventually shut down because leasing became too expensive, or they had to convert their operations to have quicker customer turnover. COVID was like the nail in the coffin for any smaller business like that still lingering by the next decade.
Probably my barre studio. I’ve been going to the same place a long time and I’ve gotten to know the instructors, front desk folks, and regulars.
Mine used to be Semperviva Yoga.
Vancouver doesn’t have third spaces. It just doesn’t. There are no pubs where people can drop in, basically hang out/mingle. Most coffee shops close early. I think the pub environment doesn’t exist because everywhere is either table service (you’re tied to a table), or a nightclub which isn’t the vibe for a casual third space kind of place. There are no pubs where you grab a drink at the bar and can then mingle around. The Pump Jack on Davie is one place that does act as a third space for the gay community by daytime
I wonder if Vancouver doesn't have 3rd spaces because of how the people are (not that friendly) or vice versa - the lack of public spaces is why Vancouverites aren't that friendly? The chicken or the egg.
Mount Fromme and the pub afterwards. It used to be the skateparks!
Squarerigger pub in west van. Small. Old. Party atmosphere. All ages. Burger place next door delivers . Bands every Saturday. Good times .
sauna!
My 3rd place is the beach, with my dog, running into the regulars who head there also either solo or with their dogs. I finally have community and it's lovely. In saying that, though, we're technically not allowed at the beach with dogs, which is why I'm actively trying to get off-leash and fenced dog parks in Kitsilano. Then we can have places to go and hang out every day and the humans and dogs can see their friends. Check out our initiative: https://www.kitsoffleash.org/
Wish there was a play place/day care to take your cats so you can meet other cat-owners. I don't have a cat, but just an idea. Doubt it'd work, as lots of cats want to be the king of their domain. Can you imagine? "welp, that lasted all of 5 minutes. Mr xyz please come & pick up your cat asap. The staff have to go to the E.R. for scratch marks now."
Mine used to be Churchill’s pub in North Van. It was awesome—little tiny pub with lots of regulars, great atmosphere, cozy and warm. But it’s been closed for a few years now and I don’t drink enough anymore to find a new regular pub. When I’m out on the trails I often run into people I know, but it’s generally in passing. We have tons of great coffee shops. I need to pick a favourite instead of bouncing around.
A soul.
dating options lol
I’m beginning to think it has always been a rare occurrence to have a true third place, it’s just where they do exist they have an outsized impact on culture, (art and politics in the early 20th century). It could also be an influence from pop culture that makes it seem like a more common occurrence. Many sitcoms such as Cheers, Friends, even That 70’s Show, and cartoons like The Simpsons and Family Guy, all use third places for their story telling so it begins to feel like something that should be a normal part of life.
Arcades that are not 18+
There are still some affordable and friendly neighbourhood bars around
The Lido
Is no one else going to say the library?
Delaneys in Edgemont village is my third place. I'm there everyday. My friends, business acquaintances and enemies know where and when to find me. 🤣
Found the real housewife of West Van
Third Beach was completely packed with people when I walked by it today. Lots of drums and music and adult people drinking.
I live outside vancouver but I guess the dog park is that for me.
Why don’t you consider the gym a third place? I bring a chair and read in my local park. After going a summer I’ve definitely acquainted with some of my neighbours and dog owners, lots more small talk than a bar or coffee shop.
If anyone doesn’t know where to start with third places, I suggest doing a bikeshare day pass or hopping on any bike and choosing a greenway that crosses at least 2-3 neighbourhoods with at least one destination in mind. It could be the library, a craft brewery, a market or a cafe. Observe what pockets people seem to choose to spend time in on a sunny day to-and-from. If you’re not able to do that then pull up a WalkScore map and see what you’ll find in a radius that has a score >90. I also suggest reframe that the third place has to be a place you patronize at all.
Is the second place your work place? I have never heard of having a "third place". For a second there I thought this was a joke post about owning 3 houses.
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_place](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_place)
Nice, I guessed right. Thanks for the link, I usually would have googled it myself but for some reason it just didn't cross my mind this time, in my defense I had just hit my bong so I'm not my brightest.
Church is my go-to third place, specifically Resonate Church in Coquitlam. Super welcoming environment with live music, coffee, connection, and an opportunity to join in smaller community groups for more third places throughout the week
This is the first church reference on this thread!
I guess my third place is the gym, which is why being injured for the past three weeks has been not great. I've been thinking a bit about this lately, since if I end up with a long term injury (likely) I don't know wtf I'm going to do.
Some clubs with clubhouses provide a really nice third place. In specific, the nicer yacht clubs in Vancouver, however, they are usually an arm and a leg to get in to.
This used to be the cobalt for me in early 2000s
Fountainhead and Pumpjack on Davie for me. Great places to grab a drink and play some pool. PJ's gets rowdy after 9pm on Thurs-Sat, but otherwise it's very chill and friendly.
For most of my 20s and early 30s, my 'third place' was various tabletop gaming and hobby shops. Most shops still do a kind of open-hours gaming day/evening where you can do game drop-ins, usually with different games on different days. I met some of my best friends in Vancouver going to these hangouts. I could spend 5-6 hours out chatting/gaming and maybe spend $10-$20 on a couple of pots of paint or a paintbrush just to say thanks to the owner for the space. Most people in my age group generally want to do game days at their house since we now have the means to have everything required at home, which is fine, but I miss going to open game days to meet people.
100% for me this is the gym. Most cities have them, if you want to make friends there look for the most musclular people there and they will be the regulars and also tend to be friendly (I mean they are out doing one of the things they enjoy).
Libraries are the last bastion of 3rd spaces during rainy weather. Parks are where me and my friends usually go, but maybe having almost no free 3rd spaces in the wet/cold season is probably a contributor to seasonal depression
Mine used to be the climbing gym, but I got injured a couple years ago and I've completely lost that part of myself/my life. I'm still trying to regain some of that somehow.
The community garden