This story connects to Bowling Alone by Andrew Putnam, as it shows the decrease of social connections and the engagement of the community in current American life. In Bowling Alone, the author explains that people are more disconnected from one another, and blames it mainly on the loss of shared public spaces, and how relationships are created and kept. This idea is clearly seen in my interview story, where Ron Mattocks talks about the importance of “third spaces”, which are places outside of home and work where people can gather and interact with each other. This project, which is described in the story, which starts with the bringing back of Meadville rye whiskey, surprisingly became a main solution to this problem. Since this created an environment welcoming community members for tastings, events, and conversations, the space provides a good opportunity for these people to connect and make these relationships. The positive response from the Meadville locals proves that there is indeed a real demand for these types of environments, which backs up Putnam’s idea about the importance of community connections. All in all, the story serves as a real-world example, showing how rebuilding these social spaces can help bring back a sense of community and belonging, which directly relates to the
trends shown in Bowling Alone.
A Place to Gather
By: Logan Greer
After growing up right outside of Meadville, Pennsylvania, Ron left home like many others, as he was looking to experience something bigger and better. Ron spent years enlisted in the Army and later took on a career in real estate and marketing, living in big cities across the country. As time passed, however, that experience led him to a surprising realization. Ron did not just want to live anywhere, but he wanted to be a part of a community to make a difference and an impact. That key realization was the main reason that brought Ron Mattocks back to Meadville. Once he returned, he soon began to get more involved in local events, such as joining the county planning commission. Through this work, he began to see how exactly a community functions behind closed doors, which most people do not see from the outside. Through housing, infrastructure ad development are more complex ideas that are never seen from outsiders, which is exactly what Ron wanted to get into as he returned. This experience for Ron really shifted how he viewed Meadville and further inspired him to take a more involved role in his future. This involvement continued to grow and expand and eventually led to an unexpected opportunity. The chance to revive Meadville’s historic rye whiskey. What started as a tiny, old idea quickly blew up into something more. Ron was determined to create a space for events like tastings and other gatherings for people in the Meadville community to experience. Before long, all kinds of people began showing up, not just for the whiskey, of course, but for the experience as a whole in this shared space. Over time, this shared community space was acting as a larger need. Meadville truly lacked places where community members could gather and connect with one another. By hosting events and sharing the local history of Meadville, Ron played a massive role in creating an environment where people could come together with each other and their whole community. Starting as such a simple idea, this whole thing turned out to be something that Ron could have never imagined, a way to bring people together and reconstruct the community aspect of what downtown Meadville could truly be.
Ron Mattocks