The community has been getting together since June and sharing a coffee and some conversation as part of the weekly CGOW CA Community Cafe that was started this year at Voyageur Park. We have a great neighbourhood with amazing parks and access to trails, but we haven’t had access to cozy Third Spaces within easy walking or biking distance of all parts of Convent Glen and Orleans Wood. Here’s why and how we started to tackle this challenge.
If you are lucky to live in Convent Glen South, there is easy access to a number of great establishments along St Joseph Boulevard within a short walk or bike. Cafe Amore and Beyond Cafe are two great examples of new establishments that offer cozy and quaint meeting places for neighbours to connect, along with the many long-standing favourites. North of the 174 (and especially close to the Greenbelt) there aren’t many options, so the CA decided to explore hosting a regular drop-in coffee spot in the park on Sunday mornings. After securing the city permit required, we’ve started to host weekly gatherings, weather and volunteer permitting, to gather and create an opportunity to meet and reinforce ties amongst neighbours. Having a regular time and place to connect with neighbours is a key way to build a tighter knit community.
Wikipedia offers up that a ‘village green’ was a common area within a village that originally had a watering hole or pond for animals and common grassland. There, villagers would gather around the watering hole and share the latest news in their area. In the Middle Ages in England, they incorporated village greens in the center of settlements to be used as open-air meeting places and for public celebrations. The same concept was seen throughout Europe and the rest of the world, making space to connect and strengthen bonds.
American sociologist Ray Oldenburg called the home and the people we live with our “first place”. The “second place” is the workplace (or school)—where people may actually spend most of their waking time, though remote work is changing the physical location of this. Third places, then, are “anchors” of community life and facilitate and foster broader, more creative interaction. In other words, “your third place is where you relax in public, where you encounter familiar faces and make new acquaintances”.
In The Great Good Place, Oldenburg and co-author Karen Christensen discuss the seven characteristics of third places. A third place is:
Open and inviting.
You don’t need an invitation or appointment, and you can come and go as you please.
Comfortable and informal.
You feel that you belong there.
Convenient.
It’s close enough to visit often, ideally right in your own neighborhood.
Unpretentious.
Everyone is on the same level, there’s nothing fancy or fragile, and it’s not expensive.
There are regulars.
And often there’s a host who greets people as they arrive.
Conversation is the main activity.
Discussion, debate, and gossip are part of the mix.
Laughter is frequent.
The mood is light-hearted and playful. Joking and witty banter are encouraged.
With these principles in mind, we are exploring ways to connect us all with some third places in our neighbourhoods and we invite everyone to consider joining in. The weekly Community Cafe (https://cgow.ca/fe) held on Sundays at 9:30 AM at Voyageur Park aims to meet all of the key criteria and we’ve found a great mix of folks who have come to appreciate the regular touchpoint it affords. Great bakery items and artisanal coffee doesn’t hurt either! We’d also encourage everyone to keep building on the great neighbourhood and street engagement that is taking place all around us. Regular park meet-ups (whether for the cafe, or for picnics or Pedal and Play), shinny hockey at the outdoor rink, or just catching up with other families at the playground, these can all help us be more connected if we think of the principles of third places as we gather.
Come check out the Community Cafe on Sundays at 9:30 and the pop-up park picnics (next at Glen Park on August 16 at 2 PM) that are going on and see how you can build your own regular meet-ups with friends and make some new acquaintances. You can find many ways to get and stay connected on our website here https://cgow.ca/connections. See you all soon!
