Measurement null

<p>There is no large decline in third places once a fixed definition is held constant.</p><p>Apparent loss is produced by changing labels (calling every café a third place, then noticing that most cafés never qualified), by population and income scaling, or by counting closures without counting entries. Under the primary Oldenburg-style definition, stock, access, use, or qualifying function is stable or only modestly down after those adjustments.</p><p>This is the first hypothesis to test, not a courtesy. If it survives, several supply hypotheses have nothing left to explain. If it fails, the remaining hypotheses must name which decline they are explaining: fewer qualifying sites, worse access, higher price, lower use of surviving sites, or surviving sites that no longer function as third places.</p>