The Cheers Effect: The Importance of Neighborhood Gathering Places - Horowitz

The Cheers Effect: The Importance of Neighborhood Gathering Places - Horowitz

My “Cheers” is Hope Street Pizza. “It’s the place where everybody knows my name and they’re always glad I came" (or at least pretend to be), to borrow from the theme song for the popular comedy that centered around a Boston neighborhood bar. The owners of Hope Street Pizza, Saki Meltsakos and Lena Zafiriades, make everyone feel welcome; the regulars all know each other’s names and greet each other. People come as much for the companionship and sense of community as for the excellent food and drinks.

Neighborhood gathering places like Hope Street Pizza are important to the quality of life and building a strong sense of community which has eroded in too many parts of our nation, contributing to a pervasive sense of loneliness.  They produce the so-called “Cheers" effect. “Americans who recognize their neighbors at these local spots are more likely to report feeling close to their neighborhoods,” wrote Daniel Cox, the lead author of the American Community Life Survey, published annually by the American Enterprise Institute. “Over two-thirds (68 percent) of Americans who recognize their neighbors report feeling closely connected to their communities and the people who live there. In contrast, only 41 percent of those who have a third-place but do not generally know the people there say they feel connected to their community.”

More broadly, nearly 6-in-10 Americans with “neighborhood spots say they feel either very or somewhat closely connected to their communities,” while only a little more than 4-in-10 of those without a spot say they feel at least somewhat closely connected to their communities.  Additionally, Americans who have locations in their neighborhood where they recognize the people that go there are nearly twice as likely to have conversations with people that “they don’t know well” than Americans who do not have these kinds of locations in their communities.

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As the authors of the survey note, neighborhood amenities, such as “restaurants, bars, and coffee shops; places of entertainment; parks or other green spaces; community centers and libraries; places to buy groceries; and gyms or fitness centers,” connect people to their communities, “reducing feelings of loneliness and social isolation.” Americans living in high amenity areas are more likely than people living in low amenity areas to say they rarely or never feel there is nowhere they really belong and that they have people they can turn to.  People in high amenity areas are also much more likely to say they feel safe walking home alone after dark than people who live in low amenity areas.

As we more fully emerge from the isolating impacts of the pandemic, which exacerbated our sense of loneliness, we can have newfound appreciation for our existing neighborhood gathering places and support policies that ensure more of our neighborhoods and communities have the amenities that enrich our lives and serve as the glue for our communities.

In our polarized nation, we need more places to personally connect -- more places like Hope Street Pizza.