P.O.M.M Podcast: A Nation of Strangers

Hello Everyone! I go by Jay Scott Gatsby and I wish you a warm welcome to yet another episode of the "Peace of My Mind Podcast". In today's episode I will be exploring how suburban development and the disappearance of local shops and the third spaces have contributed to the absence of the sense of community in modern society. So wherever you are, I invite you to get comfortable, stay open, and take this time for yourself. Thank you all in for your continued love and support because it is very deeply appreciated! To show your love for what I do you can bless me with a thumbs up and a click of the share button as well as subscribing to keep up with the latest episodes and content! If you'd like to connect with me further outside of the show, you can find the links to my social media profiles down below! Peace!

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jay.scott.gatsby/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jordan.melvin.342770

Gatsby FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61560959836426

Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/gatsby/1323121938

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/7nNQ950jFlUvfhmD5GEd6l?si=zl_unsEjQlyZbuCwThIZWA

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome in, everybody. You are listening to yet another episode of the Peace in My Mind Podcast. I am your host, J. Scott Gatsby, and today we are recording in front of the Arthur D. Smith Recreation Center in Fayetteville, North Carolina, because this conversation has a lot to deal with spaces just like the one right behind me. Today we will be exploring how suburban development and the disappearance of local shops and third spaces have contributed to that absence of the sense of community in modern society. So, no matter what you're doing or where you're at, I invite you to grab a friend and join me for this much needed conversation. Let's begin. These places are vital to humanity because they foster informal interactions and cultivate that sense of belonging for community members. You would think that with how important they are to our well-being as humans, their maintenance will be prioritized, but yet they have been quietly disappearing from our communities over the last few decades. Think I'm lying? Ask yourself, if you wanted to get out the house with some friends without having to spend a lot of money, but the weather outside wasn't necessarily the best, where would you go? This is a very difficult question, again, because many establishments have posted rules against soliciting due to the need to acquire profits to afford the price of upkeep and operation of the location. This is understandable, but due to this fact, we do not see many events created for the genuine coming together of people in an effort to create a sense of community amongst one another. Me personally, I feel like the base of this issue lies in how communities are constructed. And in order to understand the form of structures in a capitalist society, you must follow the money. What I mean by this is you must ask yourself who makes money from the communities being formed in the way that they are? The answer to this question is the companies that provide society with both gas and cars. This is due to the fact that if the majority of the population lived in communities that were designed so that everything that they need, such as grocery, jobs, schools, homes, etc., were within walking distance, many people would not feel the need to purchase cars, of which they would need to also purchase gas for the cars to run. This archetype of neighborhood design is known as traditional. Traditional neighborhoods are based on early 20th century planning principles that emphasize compact, walkable neighborhoods with mixed-use spaces, contrasting with the sprawling, car-dependent developments that became common after World War II. This design was created to restore a sense of community and local identity, making neighborhoods more livable and seemingly connected amongst people. Even if the distance of these places that people seemingly need to be amongst the community were just out of reach to walk to, many people would sooner buy an electric scooter, a bike, or even take a mode of public transportation before they would just up and buy a car. Using these alternative methods of transportation instead of a car influences people to pay more attention to both their environment and the people that they share the community with. In this new prioritization of attention, social networks are built way more easily because social interactions with the community become more consistent and natural. A growing number of researchers agree that people who are socially engaged with others and actively involved in their communities tend to live longer and be healthier physically and mentally with less occurrences of things like heart attacks, cancers, and just premature deaths of all sorts. In society, our homes are our first space and our workplaces are our second spaces. Third spaces, however, are essentially homes away from home with trusted peers and family members. These community sites help fight against loneliness, stress, and alienation, as well as supporting well-being through mechanisms of stimulation, support, protection, and care. An important impact of the decline of third spaces is how they affect, particularly, the socio-economically marginalized populations who are more vulnerable to the threat of isolation, stress, and loneliness. In these often underserved communities where a significant percentage of the population aren't necessarily financially prosperous, the residents heavily rely on the interpersonal relationships they cultivate with other community members to not only survive but to truly live while maintaining that genuine sense of belonging and understanding. A vital characteristic of Third Spaces is their low or affordable cost to participate. I don't expect anything good for us as human beings to be free, but at the same time, I do believe it shouldn't cost so much of which we have to choose between survival or mental, social, and emotional well-being. Economically, we can observe a declining percentage of the population that can actually afford to experience extracurricular activities with their friends and family outside of their needs. For this reason, it is crucial for third spaces to be affordable because affordability ensures that little to no one would be unable to participate in the cultivation of this sense of community. We have to pay for just about everything else in life. So to come across something or a space that we can exist in without worrying about how much it costs is genuinely a great relief for many people and the working or the poor class. In America specifically, the promotion of the ideal that is individualism has made many citizens feel as if spending time with family and friends and leisure is a luxury when in reality it is a vital to our health and development as human beings, as the social beings that we are. An issue concerning the access to third spaces is the affordability of homes near or around third spaces. Over the last several decades, we can observe that buying a home in a neighborhood that resembles the traditional model has become increasingly difficult. This fact forces many Americans to have no choice but to live in modern car-dependent suburbs because not enough affordable traditional neighborhoods exist. This issue is compounded by municipal zoning codes and other public policy changes that promote transport by private vehicle while also discouraging public transport as well as the building of pedestrian-oriented neighborhoods. I don't think this problem can change unless we the people force a change, both politically and environmentally, concerning how the land is used and how well public transportation is constructed. To accomplish these goals, the first thing that must change is the public consciousness about these issues. The people must first be educated on the deep importance of third spaces. Not only that, people must be educated on the history of how government policy has changed our mindset on issues involving race and gender discrimination in the past so that we can plan accordingly to change our concept of how the environment around us has been built to discourage the creation of pedestrian-oriented towns and neighborhoods. In short, it's not you. It's simply the way that our environment has been constructed. Developers in recent decades are cooperating with both politicians and owners of gas and car companies to make as much a profit as possible by ensuring that our neighborhoods and cities cannot be efficiently traversed by walking, biking, or public transportation. Due to this, that sense of loneliness and longing for community you feel is due to the decline in the presence of third spaces, of which you can experience needed social interaction with members of your community. To combat this, we must educate ourselves on both how the situation came to be and the methods that we can use both politically and socially to make the necessary changes, ensuring the production of more pedestrian oriented neighborhoods. With enough effort and time, we could see that Thurspace is making a much needed comeback.