Your Third-Place

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This is another installment of my Irvine cultural anthropological studies poll. I?m asking today, what and where is your third-place? The third-place is a phrase coined more than a decade ago, as a collective culture Americans found the revolution of Starbucks as a place that is neither their home nor their workplace. The third-place held and filled an important cultural distinction as the place or activity that occupies the majority of their leisure time. It?s also a place of social significance as it?s a mechanism for finding new, maintaining and developing communal relationships outside of the home or workplace. A great example of a third-place is the bar in Cheers.



Third-places come and go through out a lifetime; places, peoples, things and activities change with the seasons. Some third-places may fall to fourth or fifth places and some may even take over second places; some hobbies can become main income sources. In my lifetime, I?ve been a regular at coffee houses in Santa Monica; an expected member at a gym in downtown; I?ve even hanged with a water-cooled Volkswagen club before. These days, if I?m not out in the field working or at home with the family, you can most likely find me hanging out at church on Sundays and some weeknights; the main peoples in our social community comprises of our church small group and other congregational members.



I?m curious as to see what kind of third-places there are in Irvine. The master-planned design should lend well to foster third-place environments. On the other hand, are people sheltered behind the <a href="http://www.irvinehousingblog.com/forums/viewthread/5047/">Orange Curtains</a> , are people so private in Irvine that we simply keep to ourselves! Or are we simply too busy working and resting to have third-places. If you are not working or at home, where can we find you?
 
You could also add places like the beach, regional parks, amusement parks (Disney, Wild Rivers, Zoo) and walkable downtowns like San Clemente, San Juan Capistrano, Laguna Beach, Newport Beach, Huntington Beach, Santa Monica, and others, and of course the large malls like South Coast Plaza (unless you consider that in with the retail centers).



I answered An Irvine Retail Center because we like to go to the District, the Spectrum, Woodbury Town Center and to the Oak Creek Plaza in addition to all the places I mentioned above.
 
Cars, online, extra place on the beach (soon to be desert), ballroom dance studio, shooting range....



just too much to do, not enough time to do anything.
 
[quote author="bkshopr" date=1241078516]Can you add garage, That seems to be the favorite 3rd place lately.</blockquote>
Or maybe my back... because I can't seem to get bk off of it.



(There was actually a more vulgar version of this post but some may not get the joke)
 
When I was in elementary school my parents used to send me to the nearby Boys Club after school. Many of my fondest childhood memories are from the Boys Club. I would take swimming and art classes. They even had a lab full of Apple ][e's where I learned to program in BASIC when I was in 1st and 2nd grade. My parents would give me a dollar for a snack from the cafeteria, but instead of buying a small slice of pizza, I found they would give me a handful of pepperonis for a quarter and I saved the rest.



We later moved to OC and there wasn't any place like this nearby and the closest ones weren't places you really wanted to hang out, i.e. located at Juvenile Hall. When I told other kids that I used to hang out at the Boys Club, they thought I was some sort of degenerate that needed a place to keep me off the streets.
 
I remember there was a Boys&Girls; club in Woodbridge off of East Yale Loop (we used to play league there)... is it still there and has anyone had any experience with it?
 
RC, I'm surprised you don't have a button for "Parent's House." Isn't that where your friends like to hang out to make their case for an advance on their inheritence?
 
[quote author="IrvineRenter" date=1241079330]You could also add places like the beach, regional parks, amusement parks (Disney, Wild Rivers, Zoo) and walkable downtowns like San Clemente, San Juan Capistrano, Laguna Beach, Newport Beach, Huntington Beach, Santa Monica, and others, and of course the large malls like South Coast Plaza (unless you consider that in with the retail centers).



I answered An Irvine Retail Center because we like to go to the District, the Spectrum, Woodbury Town Center and to the Oak Creek Plaza in addition to all the places I mentioned above.</blockquote>


Well, those are great places to hang out, but with who? With family or with with friends? When I think of third-places, I'm thinking of a regular place where you meet your friends. Again to use another TV examples; it's the diner where Jerry and George have their "nothing talks" in Seinfeld; it's the "Central Perks" coffee shop that all the FRIENDS hang-out...
 
This is a good one, I've never thought about it before but I have to say my 3rd place is on the Bike....I think last weekend I spent around 8 hours on it, then an additional 5 hrs in Dana Point <em>watching</em> a bike race...



But when I think about it, I did ride up and down the beautiful PCH 4 times, through Crystal Cove, Laguna Beach, down to Dana Point, back up Newport Coast dr, up Laguna Canyon, through Irvine, along the Backbay..not in any particular order of course....spent time with some great People, met one of my Hero's from Rock Racing, Rasaan Bahati (who won) time at the Coffee shop en-route..so to me it's a whole lot more than sitting on a Bike and Pedaling for hours on end...



One thing is for sure, every time I get on the Bike it always re-affirms how lucky I am to be living in such an awesome place.....



My 4th place is our local Coffee shop, I stop by on the way to work or after a ride and chill with Friends there...it's a better Coffee shop than *$'s in my opinion...



I realized the key to life is that everyone needs something to look forward to when we wake up in the morning, a 3rd place, even though I've never heard the term, should be it.
 
My friends and I used to always hang out at Norms in Orange. It was our oasis from the mean streets of OC. We hung out there so much in high school, summers, and after college that we knew the waiter shifts. Whenever any of us dated a new girl, one key test was to take her to Norms. If she could hang with the crew and enjoy $4.99 steak and eggs at 2 am while dressed in her clubbing clothes, she was a keeper.



In hindsight, it wasn't a very good test because none of them ever turned out to be a keeper. And I married a girl who absolutely refuses to ever eat there. Also... little did we know at the time, but apparently steak and eggs, chili cheese fries, and honey mustard chicken strips at 2 am is really, really bad for you. Go figure.
 
[quote author="irvine_home_owner" date=1241133690]I remember there was a Boys&Girls; club in Woodbridge off of East Yale Loop (we used to play league there)... is it still there and has anyone had any experience with it?</blockquote>


It's gone I think. Remember the dirt bike racetrack next to it? We didn't even wear helmets.
 
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