I’m one of the people who have helped set up a community for skaters/longboarders in my city which has seen a great regular base of people coming back weekly. The ages vary from all spans. Do you want to know what I’ve found the key to be?

A) The meetups have to be accessible to the group, meaning something which doesn’t require people to pay for. People can’t afford anything right now, especially the younger people. Having somewhere public to go and hang out together and skate is a huge benefit. The costing leads us into the second more important step;

B) community willing to gift old gear to new riders. If people come join our community, there is often someone available with an extra board they don’t use as much and are happy to gift to new riders who seem interested in following meets. Finally, and actually the most challenging;

C) making sure to limit political discussions. People in our group of over 40 people obviously have a wide swath of beliefs, and if anyone gets discriminatory, we shut that shit down and explain to those people that the group is inclusive and has no interest in those discussions here. We always have the risk of members clashing, but with a larger group we’ve found over the past couple of years we’re able to at least shut that stuff down sooner, since the majority of people involved just want others to skate with and make friends with for their hobbies, and less so their beliefs.

All of this to say the most important part is free third places. If people don’t have places they can go together that doesn’t empty their wallets, then yeah, people are going to stop going out and will stay inside instead. It’s another failing from the generations that have come before closing down more public spaces and trying to monetize everything, including government services.