There are many opinions on this, but I think the single biggest factor that would "revitalize" Oak Square and Brighton in general, is the presence of good and *local* public schools. As it is right now, stable families which make up the core of any community are jumping the border to Newton or Brookline, as soon as they have kids, primarily to send their kids to better schools...one esteemed exam school (Boston Latin) is not enough in Boston to meet the demand....on the other hand, if the schools here were better, more middle class families would move in, lowering the amount of transients, making real estate prices higher. In such case, Brighton would become another Brookline and few of us could afford to live here anyway...so, I like it the way it is.

In Response to Changes in Oak Square:

The traffic congestion is a big problem.  Too many people use Oak Square as a pass - through on their way to Boston.  Tremont St. is now backed up with 50-100 autos at the Oak Sq. lights during many parts of the day.

The City street cleans Tremont St. and Oak Sq.but  does so on an un-announced schedule. There are no restrictions on auto parking during those times, like there is for many streets in Brighton Center.  So, the street cleaners are forced to go around parked cars.  Why is Oak Square different?

Oak Square needs to require resident parking.  There have been so many times where I've seen people use the parking spaces to commute to downtown.