Is there a decline of third places?

Third places are locations outside of work and home where people from local neighborhoods come together to make new and maintain existing relationships. Similar to Valois in Slim's Table. Recently, there have been some observations of the decline of local commercial establishments that played this role. George Blecher thinks that diners in New York City are disappearing. As they go, NYC is loosing an important type of third place for social life. You can read his story here. In Manchester, England there is a similar process happening as many of the local estate pubs are closing. These too were an important place where local community life took place. Are there good examples of third places like this in Vancouver?