The new social networking tool - just somewhere to meet

Over on his Neighbourhoods blog Kevin Harris reminds us of the importance of community spaces and third places , where people can meet and chat. There's lots of research and learned discourse about the development of social software to help build social capital (with more due soon), but rather less about the loss of places where people bump into each other and feel comfortable to have a conversation.
I'm doing some work on a major neighbourhood renewal project at the moment, and there's much ado about newsletters, workshops, web sites, video and other sorts of things that consultants can offer. What local people are asking for is a community cafe where they can meet the team, and each other, and find out what is going on in the best way possible - face-to-face. Hmmm. That's proving really tough to deliver.
But if collaboration cafes are good for professional networking, aren't they also just what's needed for local networking? The problem is that poorer neighbourhoods often lack facilities that metro pros take for granted. Kevin suggests that local authorities should carry out a regular audit of 'congregational spaces' as part of their planning functions.