America is experiencing a loneliness crisis: nearly half of adults report feeling lonely and close friendships have declined. Informal public "third places"—from pickleball courts to dog parks, pools and trails—help build casual social ties but are undersupplied and underfunded. User fees, when retained and reinvested locally, offer a pragmatic way to expand and improve these amenities without broad tax increases. Well-designed fee systems can create sustainable funding, reduce pressure on property taxes, and help revive community life while protecting access for low-income residents.
More And Better 'Third Places' Can Fight Loneliness — User Fees Could Help
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America is growing lonelier. Recent surveys find nearly half of adults report feeling lonely, and roughly 21% say they experience "serious loneliness." Close friendships have also declined: a 2021 report from the American Enterprise Institute's Survey Center on American Life found 12% of Americans say they have no close friends.
Why Third Places Matter
Sociologist Ray Oldenburg coined the term "third places" for informal public spaces outside home and work where people meet, build relationships, and develop community ties. Historically, churches, fraternal orders, bowling leagues and taverns played that role. As many of those institutions shrink, the public still craves casual social settings—and recreational amenities are increasingly filling the gap.
Pickleball, Dog Parks And Other Emerging Third Places
Pickleball is a prominent example. The sport has been the fastest-growing in the U.S. for several years: nearly 20 million people played in 2024, a 311% increase since 2021. Its open-play format regularly mixes strangers on public courts and can generate the spontaneous social contact third places provide. As player and writer Mitch Dunn has observed, the pickleball court can become "a Third Place where we meet new people, collaborate with them, and leave wanting to do it all over again."
Yet supply is lagging. The U.S. added roughly 18,000 new pickleball courts in 2024, but many major metros remain underserved: New York, Los Angeles and Chicago each sit about 90% below national averages for dedicated court density, according to Sports & Fitness Industry Association data. Overcrowded courts and long waits dampen the relaxed, social atmosphere third places need to thrive.
Dog parks, public pools, trails and community recreation facilities also serve as modern third places. Research on Dallas-area parks by Lori Lee found dog parks encourage active social engagement—dogs often act as social catalysts, prompting conversations among strangers. But these amenities frequently face funding shortfalls and closures as municipal parks budgets tighten.
User Fees As A Practical Tool
One pragmatic option for expanding and improving third places is user fees: charging direct beneficiaries rather than relying solely on general-tax revenues. When fee revenue is retained and reinvested locally, it can create a sustainable funding loop—better facilities attract more users, whose fees fund further improvements.
Municipal examples already exist. Burlington, North Carolina opened a 17-court pickleball complex that mixes membership and pay-as-you-go access: members pay $20 per month for perks like advanced reservations and ball-machine access, while non-members pay about $3 per entry. Other cities are testing similar blended models for parks and recreation.
Free-market organizations such as the Reason Foundation and the Property and Environment Research Center (PERC) have long advocated user-pays/user-benefits approaches. Private markets are also responding: private pickleball clubs, mountain-bike parks and privately managed trails are expanding. But many voters continue to expect basic recreational opportunities to be available through local government—making user fees a middle path that preserves public access while generating dedicated funding.
Policy Benefits And Tradeoffs
Beyond raising money, user-fee models can help reduce pressure on property taxes, create more stable funding streams less vulnerable to political cuts, and enable targeted investments in amenities that attract users back into face-to-face community life. These models do require careful design to avoid excluding low-income residents—cities can offset that risk with targeted discounts, sliding scales, or free-access hours.
Conclusion: Expanding and improving third places—through a mix of public investment, user fees, and private options—can help repair fraying social ties without blanket tax increases. Well‑designed fee systems that reinvest locally can multiply both the number and the quality of communal spaces where Americans put down their phones and reconnect with one another.
Key Example: Burlington, NC's 17-court pickleball complex uses $20/month member fees and $3 non-member entry fees to fund operations and improvements.
