Progressive investors are hard at work to provide next generation communities where third places are the rule, not the exception.  Here are some of the prerequisites for attracting third places:

1. Build an attractive environment for creative entrepreneurs, the very people who start third places.  That’s essentially a CoolTown.
2. Make tenant space as affordable as possible.  The more creative, the more risk is involved, so a little financial support is vital.
3. Have hundreds of creative people live in the area who thrive on such places.  Works with #1 quite well.
4. Establish a guild of third place proprietors that provides both financial and technical support for starting and maintaining their business.
5. Require a strong percentage of local ownership over national chains in the main street.
6. Build third places outside as well.  If successful, these can literally redefine a community.

You would if you’re the Third Place Coffeehouse in Raleigh, North Carolina.  Their “Local Honey” CD is a compilation of local artists that have played at Raleigh’s favorite third place, which is also featured in Ray Oldenburg’s Celebrating the Third Place.

The popular watering hole is also known for its staff’s musical compilations, that is, whoever is working the current shift gets to play their own music.  So the place isn’t only a venue for live bands, spicy conversation and great food, but a living radio station that one can ‘tune into’ when they know their favorite ‘DJ’ is on.

From a local review, “In the morning, businessmen and exercisers—both suited up for their own needs—drop in. It’s a quick snack and they’re out. At noon, post-graduates, bartenders and waitresses arrive after burning the midnight oil, one way or another. At night, teenagers congregate ‘round the outside tables, couples and old friends inside, smelling beans and sharing stories. These aren’t waves: They’re smears, spread throughout Third Place’s seven-days-a-week, 18-hour workday. A punk listening to Black Flag drinks his coffee beside a coat-and-tie architect reading The New York Times, and it’s life as usual.“

Check out the Third Place Coffeehouse a-day-in-the-life-of video here - now that’s capturing the warm, homey, spontaneous, local spirit of a third place!

What’s the equivalent of the piazza in Italy when it comes to third places?  Maybe the communal dining table.

In the heart of Old Town, Alexandria, VA, The Best Coffeehouse in the Washington DC Area (as voted by the readers of Washingtonian Magazine), Misha’s takes its coffee more than seriously.  However, its popularity largely permeates from the sense that you can spend the whole afternoon there free of guilt, especially at their communal table (pictured).  One of my friends should know - he fell asleep at that table one afternoon, and we eventually left him behind.

Two other favorite third places (recently featured here) with communal tables are Tryst Cafe and The Dairy Godmother.

Fast Company magazine lists five great ones around the country here.

ps We waited discreetly across the street for my friend to find us after we called him on his cell phone.

There’s no better way to communicate the concept of the third place than to experience one.  The author of the book on third places wrote a sequel, Celebrating the third place: Inspiring Stories about the “Great Good Places” at the Heart of Our Communities to help you out.

Here are the following third places listed in the book:  Annie’s Gift & Garden Shop, Amherst MA; The Third Place Coffeehouse, Raleigh NC; Crossroads, Bellevue WA; Horizon Books, Traverse City MI; Old St. George, Cleveland OH; Square One Restaurant, San Francisco; El Taco Nazo, Pomona CA; Tunnicliff’s Tavern, Washington DC (I have to check them out!); Miami Passport Photo Shop, Hialeah FL; Good Neighbor Coffee Shop, Pensacola FL (author’s hometown); Joe’s Cozy Corner and Galatoire’s, New Orleans; Civilization, Cleveland OH; The Great Good Gym, Atlanta GA; The Natural Ground Coffeehouse, The Sharpest Irony ?, The Blue Moon Tavern, Seattle WA; Planck’s Cafe ?, Maxwell Street, Chicago IL; and the Coffee Beanery.

If any of you have been to any of these places, or know about any others, please comment below!

The first place is your home.  The second place is your workplace.  The

third place is where you hang out in between.  Ray Oldenburg wrote the book on it.

A cool town is full of great third places.  If you aren’t motivated to leave home or your workplace, chances are you don’t live around too many successful third places.

The UK has long had the concept of the third place down pat.  While staying with a friend in the small town of Streatley-Goring in England, I’d usually find him at “The Bull”, a small pub across the street (literally).  There he was, laughing it up with his good friends or playing a game of darts amid philosophic discussion.  This was available to him whenever he felt like walking 50 yards.  In fact, during my stay there it was available to me as well, as they made me feel right at home.  Now that’s what a third place is all about.

Keep up with third place trends right here.

Here’s where CoolTown-oriented institutional investors are putting their capital to create sustainable job growth:

1. $1 million in matching funds (another $1 million to be matched by a public entity) for development of a specific industry, an existing local strength.
2. $1 million in matching funds for a venture capital fund to invest in that specific industry.
3. Substantial affordable office space and living units for the entrepreneurial-minded.
4. Numerous third places (see next week Monday) to catalyze informal and formal business networking.
5. Partnership with a market development firm like CoolTown Studios to ensure the participation of the best tenants within the most effective urban planning and community of commerce for economic success.

I foresee the economies of future CoolTowns run through guilds, loosely defined as an association of common interests.

Imagine working in a neighborhood that established an arts & entertainment guild, a high tech guild, and a main street guild.  If I were a musician, I’d frequent an affordable community recording studio, with 20-30 fellow musicians I’d know within walking distance that could help me record a song.  If I were a techie, I’d be able to network with dozens upon dozens of fellow techies to collaborate on a new video game until 3 in the morning, as well as ensure the town had a fiber optic network.  If I wanted to open my own business, I’d network with the main street guild to find out what business would really fill a missing niche among the other stores and restaurants.

If I didn’t belong in any of these guilds, there are hundreds of ‘beta tester jobs’ for undiscovered music, unreleased video games or chefs who need samplers.

A business is only as good as its strategy, leadership and talent - and a community of commerce (eg a network of local businesses working together with a common purpose) is no different.

The first step to creating strong, sustainable job growth is strategizing what your city’s business talent is good at and where the growing business opportunities are.  This is the clustering of strengths, as described yesterday.  The next step is to identify the leaders by assembling the most creative businesses and individuals, as they are who will be your agents of change.  The third step is to build a village where the nightlife, arts & entertainment, affordable housing and workspaces, and socially active environment will attract the best talent.

Over time, a community of commerce will emerge, that is, a community of businesses working together as a cohesive, resonating, cross-pollinating economy, a concept that is well-documented in the book Going Local: Creating Self Reliant Communities in a Global Age

Yes, yes, yes.

To create jobs, CoolTowns focus on the intersection of three trends: 

1. The clustering of local industry strengths, executed by Michael Porter and the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City;

2. An investment in creative people, businesses and industries to generate economic performance, as is statistically proven;

3. The Smart Growth/New Urbanism movement of investing in live-work environments that enable social interaction and community building.

Stay tuned tomorrow to see what happens when these three trends align strategically…

This week’s blog focuses on jobs and worklife, ending with what our investment associates are doing about it.

Perhaps it’s easiest to illustrate what worklife will be in a CoolTown by comparing it to working in an office park:

1a. Instead of getting up at 6:00 am to beat the rush hour, you’ll be getting up at 7:00 am to walk or transit to work, or at 8:00 am if you work at home.

1b. Instead of getting home at 7:00 pm because of rush hour, you’ll be getting home by 6:00 pm via walking or transit, or 4:00 am if you want to cap your work day at your fiber optic-connected home workstation.

2a. Instead of getting excited at what new menu item the cafeteria is providing today, you’ll be enthused at what new menu items the dozen adjacent restaurants are offering.

2b. Instead of talking about what’s wrong with your company with colleagues over lunch, you’ll be talking about new opportunities in your industry with people from other ventures.