Third Places Inventory
A real map of every place in Sisters where community happens, and an honest accounting of the gaps.
01
The problem
Everyone senses that gathering places matter, but nobody has a complete picture of what Sisters actually has. Which places welcome whom, in which seasons, at what cost, at what hours. Without that baseline, conversations about community space run on anecdote.
The gaps stay invisible until you go looking. Where does a teenager go in winter? A new resident who doesn't ski? A senior on a fixed income? A parent with a toddler at 7am?
02
Why it matters
You can't strengthen what you haven't mapped. An honest inventory turns 'Sisters needs more community space' from a feeling into a work plan. It also tends to reveal cheap wins, like existing rooms that could open more hours, or places one signpost away from being found.
03
The proposed outcome
A public, maintained inventory of every third place in Sisters Country. Parks, cafés, halls, the library, trailheads, studios, courts, and rooms, each tagged by season, cost, hours, ages welcomed, and accessibility, published as both a dataset and a friendly map anyone can use.
04
What we know, and what we don't
What we know
- The third place idea comes from sociologist Ray Oldenburg, and it is well studied. These places track closely with social trust and community resilience.
- Small towns usually underestimate what they have, and overestimate how accessible it is in winter and off-hours.
Still to learn
- The actual Sisters baseline. The full list, and how each place scores on season, cost, and welcome.
- Which gaps residents feel most sharply, by age, by neighborhood, and by season.
05
Community input
The inventory will be built with residents, not just about them. An open call will ask: where do you actually run into people? What place mattered to you that no official list would ever include? Residents will be able to review and correct the draft before it is published.
Tell us what we’re missing →06
The prototype
The inventory itself is the prototype. A first version covering the town core, published for correction, then expanded to all of Sisters Country in a second pass.
07
How we'll measure it
5
things we score for every place
Season, cost, hours, ages welcomed, and physical accessibility.
08
Timeline
Method design
Spring 2026Define the inventory schema and scoring rubric. Test it on a pilot block downtown.
Town-core survey
Summer 2026 · in progressField survey of the downtown core and nearby areas.
Resident review
Fall 2026Publish the draft inventory for public correction and additions.
Full publication
Winter 2026-27Complete dataset and public map for Sisters Country, with a gaps analysis.
09
Next decision
Finish the town-core field survey and open the resident review of the draft inventory.