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From a parent searching for play spaces for her young children to a team of community members reviving an extinct youth basketball league, we highlight two instances of how barriers to entry for publicly-accessible activities are experienced and brought down in the neighborhood. 

School is out, and summer in Allston Brighton is in full swing. This means that, on any given day, Brighton resident Lisa Coyne is coming up with at least one “big thing” to do with her five young children, all under the age of eight.

“It could be like, today we are going to go to the [Oak Square] YMCA, and then a playground, or today we’re going to Elayne’s playgroup again,” said Coyne, who lives in the Oak Square area of Brighton. Three mornings every week, Elayne Baskin runs a free playgroup at the Presentation School Foundation in Brighton through the Family Nurturing Center of Massachusetts. 

Sometimes, Coyne coordinates meetups with parents, which she calls “little mom dates.” During the winter, she considers indoor open play centers like Little Lovage Club in Downtown Boston and Jam Time in surrounding towns. However, these can often cost $10 to $15 per hour for each child, which adds up quickly. 

As such, recreational and community-based activities with low financial barriers remain essential for Allston Brighton residents. Requests for financial assistance for membership at the Y have increased in the past few years, according to its executive director Kerry Jackson-Lee.

“Our people right now are — they’re crunched between affordable housing, gas, or transportation services, food,” said Jackson-Lee. “A lot of times, it’s younger professionals or students that are feeling that financial pinch, and when they take a look at, ‘What can I afford?’ — a gym membership or a third place to belong to might not make the cut, so they’ll ask for financial assistance because they know that we have it.”

Without financial assistance, a monthly membership at the Oak Square Y can cost anywhere from $53 to $65 per adult, with a $20 initial join fee; for families with two adults and any amount of children, a monthly membership costs $115. Depending on one’s income level, financial assistance could reduce the cost of membership by over half. 

For Coyne, one part of planning is seeking open play options that reduce costs for any given parent friend and herself. “For the first date, you want something local, and you want something probably low cost,” said Coyne. “Especially during the winter, there’s not indoor spots where you can have this where the kids can go run, and you can have an adult conversation.”

“I’ve heard down in South Boston, they do have community centers that have that open play, where you can go in and they have a little indoor place with jungle gyms or toys, and you can just go in there and meet other community members,” she added, referring to Boston Centers for Youth and Families (BCYF) Curley Community Center. “I’m a little jealous that we don’t really have someplace like that.”

Along with actively participating in the Y and the Allston Brighton Family Support Network, Coyne pays for summer camp at St. Columbkille Partnership School and makes use of public spaces like the Brighton Branch Library, Artesani Park, and the Boston Common. In addition, she has a membership to the Franklin Park Zoo.

“We are on a first-name basis with all the animals,” joked Coyne, laughing.

“We’re really lucky to have the librarians, the Y, the Family Support folks who are so good about building those little communities where they can, but again, it would be really easy to fall apart if these people decide to leave.”

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That day in Oak Square, I also met Douglass Teixeira as he returned to the Oak Square Y, where he is associate executive director, from a meeting at Jim’s Deli. 

His meeting was with other community members, organizing this year’s Allston Brighton teams for the city-run Boston Neighborhood Basketball League (BNBL).

Ten to fifteen years ago, youth from Allston Brighton stopped participating in BNBL, which is organized by the BCYF and has been running since 1969. Last year, after hearing community members in Allston-Brighton share fond memories of playing in the league, Teixeira, along with Jackson-Lee and several other community members, began to mobilize and connect with other youth community spaces. 

“I said, ‘Well, the Y can put in a team,’ and I looked over at the West End House, I was like, ‘You guys, do you think you could put a team in?’ And they’re like, ‘Yeah, we could,’ and I was like, Jackson-Mann, ‘You guys got a team of kids that would like to play basketball?’” described Jackson-Lee. 

Following three weeks, the team had scheduled its tryouts in early June and selected its teams. In the end, the West End House and the Oak Square YMCA put together teams. Notably, the Jackson Mann did not put together a team.

“Honestly, it was one of those things that when you hear the community needs. Sometimes, you’ll hear, ‘We need this, we need this,’” said Teixeira. “Then it’s just taking the actionable steps.”

Texeira grew up in Allston Brighton, attending the Thomas A. Edison School in Brighton until his eighth grade and was then assigned to Charlestown High School, where he participated in its football, baseball, and track teams. His athletic journey began in local teams like the Allston Brighton Little League. 

Today, he is living in Lynn, as it costs less for him and his family to live there than in Allston Brighton. Still, he is an active participant in local teams, coaching the Lynn Youth Soccer League where his daughters play.

“My philosophy with sports has always been, as you teach perseverance, and you teach a whole lot of life skills, way more than just a basketball, whatever ball you roll out,” said Teixera. “You teach kids how to handle failure, and that’s one of my biggest lessons with sports, and that’s what I want to make sure that my young ladies learn, is like you have to keep pushing through to see something to get to the end.”