Shelter from the street storms

When the sun slides low in the sky and the sidewalks cool, these are the sounds of summer near Codman Square: tires skidding, music blasting, sometimes the pop of gunshots. The teenagers who live on these streets know well these noises of the night. In the neighborhood's deadliest hours, there is nowhere else to go.

"Sometimes there've been drive-bys, there's been a lot of stuff on my street that happens," said Miguel Gonzalez, 15, who signs his name with a tiny circle over the "i." "So if I would have stayed there at nighttime when stuff had happened, I probably wouldn't be here now."

Gonzalez spoke last Sunday night in the subterranean chambers of The Spot, one of 16 teen cafes that sprung up this summer in some of the city's most dangerous neighborhoods.

At The Spot, on a side street near the square, Gonzalez had just listened to a teenager perform a Christian rap. Nearby, two other teenage boys tried to match the electronic pace of Dance Dance Revolution; others lounged on couches and listened to music. "I feel safe here," said Sherimon Harris, 17.

Food was cheap: hot dogs free; popcorn 50 cents; chips, a quarter. All the teens were checked for weapons with a metal-detecting wand before they could enter.

Outside, it was not so safe. Over the weekend, the city saw nine shootings, 13 stabbings, and 21 street robberies, as well as assorted vehicle thefts and break-ins, according to preliminary figures from the Boston Police Department.

After Mayor Thomas M. Menino called for help this year to address the city's violence -- which typically worsens during the summer -- dozens of programs to provide jobs or havens for youth were created. And for the first time, nonprofit groups stayed open late into the night.

Often, churches were involved: The Black Ministerial Alliance of Greater Boston oversaw the teen cafes, which were funded by part of a $200,000 grant from Citizens Bank of Massachusetts. Last week, the bank announced it will provide an additional $15,000 to keep three cafes open until the end of the year.

"Violence has become so pervasive in the city now that a lot of times you don't have to do anything for things to flare up," said Harold Sparrow, executive director of the alliance. "There's a lot of turf issues, so if you're in the wrong neighborhood at the wrong time, there can be a problem. Kids are scared."

At the Mt. Olive Kingdom Builders' Worship Center in Dorchester, youth workers rolled out a red carpet -- literally -- for as many as 100 teenagers who wandered in each Friday between 10 p.m. and midnight. The Roxbury YMCA also opened its doors, its basketball courts, and its pool on Friday nights until midnight.

"I would say before this summer, there were really not a lot of not-for-profits that opened from 9 to midnight," Sparrow said.

Beyond the teen cafes, churches extended their summer youth programs this year. The Catholic Charities Teen Center at St. Peter's Church on Bowdoin Street in Dorchester opened its doors for a record 13 hours each day, offering everything from computer classes to capoeira, a Brazilian martial art.

"We live in the hardest part of the city," said Paulo A. DeBarros, director of teen services, who oversaw 105 youths registered for programs.

Camp Harbor View, a day camp on Long Island, also opened this summer for 600 kids between the ages of 11 and 14. Campers were charged $5 for a four-week session; the rest of the money was covered by corporate and private donations.

It is impossible to measure the effect of these programs. But crime rates in 2007 dropped from last year, and some youth workers and city officials believe that giving teenagers and preteens a place to go this summer helped. In March, Boston police officers also began patrolling some of the city's most dangerous neighborhoods by walking the streets.

Through Aug. 26, shootings citywide declined about 20 percent from last year, to 217 in 2007, and have dropped even more in some of the neighborhoods where the youth programs proliferated. Homicides were down only slightly -- 47, compared with 49 last year -- but rape and attempted rape declined 9 percent to 176 cases.

Now, as students return to school and the cafes wind down, youth workers and nonprofits are scrambling to find money to keep the programs running. "Ideally, we'd like to see this happen year-round," said Sparrow.

The additional funds from Citizens are slated to go to three of the most popular cafes --in Roxbury, Dorchester, and the South End.

"Clearly, everyone should do their part," Bob Smyth, president and chief executive of Citizens Bank of Massachusetts, said in an interview. "It's not just saying the police department should fix this issue."

At The Spot, which is not scheduled to receive more money from Citizens, organizers are considering whether they can continue past tonight, the last official cafe opening this year. They know there are few other places teens can gather.

"I think most of them would just be sitting on their front stoop," said Katie Rice, director of neighborhood youth ministries for the Boston Project Ministries.

Teen cafes are not a new idea, but youth workers say there has never been such a broad effort to bring so many, scattered through the city's toughest neighborhoods, to Boston. Each of the teen cafes, open one night a week between Thursday and Sunday, is managed by a different group; local teens help run each location. They all have an antiviolence component. At The Spot last week, the teens listened as a former vigilante described how he escaped life on the streets through dance.

The teens who came to listen said if The Spot were not open, they would be on the streets, talking to friends.

"On most of these days, kids don't have nowhere to go," said Jeané Dunham, 15. "I'd be outside and nowadays, it ain't that safe because of violence."

As she and her friends sit on their porches, they hear gunshots or screeching tires and they freeze, she said, trying to figure out which direction the sound is coming from.

When Gonzalez was as young as 12, he would stay outside on summer nights until 10 p.m., he said.

"There ain't nothing to do," he said. "You're just going to be at your house doing nothing or outside doing nothing, because everybody's basically there."

He is particularly enthusiastic about an iPod raffle by organizers of The Spot. He brought friends to the teen cafe each week, which won him extra raffle tickets.

And at 9 p.m. on Sundays, when The Spot shuts down for another week, he doesn't worry about heading onto the dark streets alone. "They walk you home," he said.

Kathleen Burge can be reached at kburge@globe.com