Onein3 Boston helps residents connect

by Sandra Miller

It’s kind of a common refrain - it’s just hard to meet people here in Boston. It’s kind of clique-y. People aren’t friendly. Everyone just hangs out with the people they met in school or their families. It’s expensive to live here. What’s a newcomer to the city or his/her neighborhood to do?
This age group is known for its social networking skills – via the Internet, cell phones, Twitter, IMs, alumni networks, and the like, but that only goes so far. That six degrees of separation on Facebook may link a person to a neighbor, but it’s hard to start up that conversation, or even recognize that the person lives a few doors down. It takes work. Neighbors here don’t come over with a pie to welcome the new person down the hall.
That’s where Onein3 Boston comes in. It uses Facebook and e-newsletters to connect to some of its members, and through its website on the Boston Redevelopment Authority website.
“Facebook has been great for us,” says Onein3 Boston manager Devin Cole, 28, who says he may branch out to Meetup.com and other social networks and organize old-fashioned block parties.
The Back Bay branch of Onein3 organized a private room at the Rattlesnake Bar last week as part of its monthly networking series. The room filled up as the night went on. Some knew each other before they got there, but others were there to make the leap and get to know people in their neighborhood, a radical concept for a Bostonian.
“It’s not so much our age group has trouble connecting with people. It’s that they live in neighborhoods and are not connecting with people there,” says Cole. “You don’t say hi to people at your bus stop. We provide a safe space to make connections. If you get to know someone on your street, then your street life will be better.”
Cole grew up on Fairfield Street in the Back Bay, and has never moved further than three miles from there, he says. When he moved to Charlestown, on Russell Street, he knew his roommates and a few others, but most of his friends were from high school and college. “I probably walk by 100 young people in Charlestown,” he says. “Last year, I was at the Bunker Hill Parade, and a guy came up to me and said, ‘You just moved here?’” Cole was living in Charlestown for two years at that point. “Turns out he lived three doors down. There never was a reason to get to know each other,” Cole adds.
Cole has been working on this project for four years, and about two years ago, launched the neighborhood groups to target the one-third of Boston's population between 20 and 34 years old. The program connects Boston's young adults with resources related to home buying, business development, professional networking, and civic engagement, whether they are young professionals, parents, singles - anyone in that age group.
“It’s an outgrowth of neighborhood groups,” says Cole. “This organization is building a civic organization. You first have to create basic social connections … to do more proactive civic organizing.”
The One in 3 neighborhoods right now include Back Bay, Beacon Hill, North End, Charlestown, Brighton/Allston, Roxbury, and South Boston, with co-chairs for each group.
The North End chair, Michael Ratty, had moved there from Somerville two years ago, and started planning North End nights while on the mayor’s advisory council. Ratty became active in the community, and has become extremely well connected in the neighborhood. He’s just one of dozens of those active in the Onein3 Boston network, says Cole. “They’re people who moved here three or four months ago, or lived here all their life.”
Back Bay co-chairs Molly Eckman and Caryn Lazaroff both live on Beacon Street, but didn’t know each other until they joined Onein3.
Eckman, who lives on Beacon Street, points out that living in the Back Bay means tiny apartments, and “Tight spaces make it awkward to have conversations,” she says.
Eckman’s day job is at a travel council in Fort Point Channel, but when she comes home to Beacon Street, she laments she didn’t know anyone at the local Starbucks in the morning, or her neighbors next door. In contrast, she knew everyone in her hometown in Carlisle, Pa.
Eckman decided to move to Boston on a whim after seeing Babaloo, a local band who came to her Rochester college and seemed friendly. She had some friends in the area, but says, “It took me five or six years to feel stable here, to feel like a Bostonian…there were years without knowing a neighbor.”
She was doing some online searches to become more connected, and she came across Onein3 on Facebook. Cole appointed her co-chair.
“I want to go to the coffee shop or bookstore and see people I know,” says Eckman. “Everyone says this is a town, but this is not the biggest city in the world, it should have more of a neighborhood feel.”
Eckman stopped to say hi to Michele Laudenberger. In a weird coincidence, Eckman had been visiting her hometown and ran into her neighbor, Laudenberger, who was also home visiting, but lives in Boston. “I told her about this,” said Eckman, and Laudenberger came to the Rattlesnake to meet others, too. “I love this city,” says Eckman. “I want people to love it here.”
Eckman loves it so much, she is now invested in the city. She bought a studio and is looking to join the neighborhood association and take classes at the Boston Center for Adult Education.
Caryn Lazaroff, 30, grew up in Rhode Island and lived in Manhattan before coming here two years ago. She says, frankly, people are friendlier in New York City. An outgoing person, she doesn’t think twice about going places alone, but it was just hard to meet people. “It’s sort of clique-y here,” she says. “People only talk to the people they come with.”
She had friends in Boston, but, she says, “I wanted to carve out my own space.” She saw an ad for the mayor’s advisory counciland was invited to be a co-chair of the Back Bay group. “I met the neighbors in my building,” she says. Through the group, she is meeting more neighbors. “I am getting to know the city better,” she says. “This provides a warm sense of community.”
It’s also in Boston’s interest to try and keep our young residents from fleeing the city, even the state, so ONEin3 Boston provides links to career resources, parent resources like schools, parent groups, summer camps, day care, and area attractions, volunteer opportunities, information on local government and elected officials, the Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Services, tools for renting, and first-time homebuyers programs.
So far, Cole says, he hasn’t heard of any romantic connections at these events, “but it would be a great place to meet someone,” he adds.
Tonight at 6 p.m., the One in 3 career division will host an entrepreneurs night at the Boston Public Library, with guests invited to dissect and critique a few presentations. Boston Young Entrepreneurs provide support to entrepreneurs at varying stages and levels of experience while establishing a united voice for its members. It’s open to all young voices and meets in the evening on the third Tuesday of every month.
For more information on Onein3 Boston, go to www.onein3boston.org.