Local opinion: Arizona needs more third places — especially in the summer

Most of us have a first place and a second place.

The first is home. The second is work or school. The “third place” is everything in between: the coffee shop where the barista knows your order, the local gym where retirees work out beside teenagers and the mall where grandparents watch children play.

A third place is not quite an appointment and not quite an errand. It is somewhere people can simply be around other people.

That may sound ordinary, but ordinary connection has become a public health concern.

In 2023, the U.S. surgeon general issued an advisory warning that loneliness and social isolation pose serious risks to physical and mental health. The advisory linked social disconnection to higher risks of depression, cardiovascular disease, dementia and premature death. In other words, belonging is not merely pleasant. It is protective.

Yet loneliness is often treated as an individual problem. People are told to join a group, call a friend, volunteer or get out more. Those suggestions assume there is somewhere welcoming, affordable and physically comfortable to go.

Connection requires more than motivation. It requires infrastructure.

Arizona has a particular need for that infrastructure.

During much of the year, parks, trails and outdoor gathering spaces can serve as natural meeting places. But summer changes the equation. When temperatures make prolonged outdoor activity difficult or unsafe, many people retreat into homes, cars and workplaces. The result can be months of reduced casual interaction, particularly for older adults, teenagers, parents with young children and people who live alone.

That is why Arizona needs more large, accessible, air-conditioned third places.

None of this looks like a formal public health intervention. That is exactly the point.

Picture Tucson’s Park Place Mall on an ordinary afternoon. Older adults sit and watch families pass. Teenagers meet friends without needing to buy a full meal. Parents walk laps with strollers. Children play while grandparents supervise from nearby benches. A walking group may gather before stores even open.

Third places create low-pressure, intergenerational contact. They allow people of different ages to occupy the same environment without requiring them to enroll in a program, qualify for a service or explain why they are there.

The same is true of libraries, recreation centers, community colleges, museums, indoor markets and faith-based gathering spaces. These places make room for the small, repeated interactions from which familiarity and trust grow.

Not everyone wants to attend a support group. Not every teenager wants a structured activity. Not every older adult wants to be placed in a program designed only for older adults. Sometimes people want to sit, walk, talk, read, watch or simply be somewhere other than home.

The book “Finding Your Third Place: Building Happier Communities (and Making Great Friends Along the Way)” captures the idea well. Friendship and belonging often develop through repeated, informal encounters. You see the same people. You exchange a greeting. Eventually, someone notices when you are absent.

Arizona communities should begin treating third places as part of our public health and social infrastructure.

Cities, counties, shopping centers, schools and public health organizations could work together to keep more indoor spaces open during evenings and weekends. Libraries and recreation centers could offer extended summer hours. Vacant retail spaces could become temporary indoor walking areas, youth gathering spaces or intergenerational activity rooms.

Malls could be recognized not merely as retail centers, but as climate-controlled community spaces that already serve a public function.

The goal is not to turn every gathering place into a program. Overprogramming can defeat the purpose. Third places work because participation is voluntary, informal and easy.

Arizona cannot solve loneliness simply by telling people to be more social. We must create places where social connection can happen naturally.

In a state where summer can push people indoors for months at a time, air conditioning is not just a comfort. It can be a tool for community connection.

Sometimes the first step in combating loneliness is not a hotline, class or campaign.

Sometimes it is simply opening the doors, adding a few chairs and giving people somewhere to go.