A home away from home and work.
Across Ottawa every day, local citizens gather in cafes, coffee shops, collaboration spaces, games rooms, bars, and venues to enjoy the company of their community peers and enjoy local fare. These vital third places (home is our first place, work our second place) are often small businesses in our communities across rural, suburban, and urban Ottawa.
Throughout October, the Ottawa Coalition of Business Improvement Areas (OCOBIA) and its 18 Business Improvement Areas (BIA) members will celebrate third places across the city.
“Third-place small businesses are drivers of economic development activity, employers, and commercial taxpayers who also provide a vital link, for neighbourhood locals to interact and create ties to their community,” said OCOBIA Chair, Andrea Steenbakkers. “In Barrhaven, across suburban Ottawa, and throughout the whole city, the entrepreneurs that run third places recognize, as BIAs do, the role of small businesses in creating a sense of place for locals, and tourists in making Ottawa a vibrant G7 capital city.”
Frequently built around common interests of the walkable community surrounding it, third places featured during Small Business Month cater to the local community with a range of interests. From the local sports fanbase in The Glebe, the role-playing gamers in Bells Corners, and music enthusiasts on Sparks Street third places provide a local ‘levelling place’ to connect, relax, and communicate with others.
“Business Improvement Areas across Ottawa were created to promote the local identity of the communities of brick-and-mortar small businesses that make each neighbourhood unique,” said Brad Fougere, Executive Director of OCOBIA. “By celebrating each community throughout Small Business Month, we pay particular attention to the vital community-focused businesses that allow neighbours to gather and connect at a time when isolation and a lack of social connection and cohesion contribute to the ongoing social emergency facing BIAs across the city.”
Published in 1989, the Ray Oldenburg book, The Great Good Place showcases how third places have been pillars of community and connection rooted in history across modern societies. Through the digital age, the advent of online communities has challenged the third places model of Chinese teahouses, French cafés and London coffee houses. However, across Ottawa’s BIAs, entrepreneurs and small business owners continue to evolve the role of third places.
Follow OCOBIA on Instagram and LinkedIn as we celebrate Ottawa’s BIA-located Third Places throughout Small Business Month in October.