Claudia Scenna considers the area of Somerville near Tufts her dream community.
"All I dreamed about was having a house with a front porch and finally meeting a guy," she said.
Her wishes materialized and she is now married and has been living on Sunset Rd. for two and a half years.
But recently she has found the community to be far from perfect.
At last night's forum, she spoke to a discussion group about the time that students at a party threw garbage onto a large Red Maple tree she had planted in her yard, a tree that had cost her $360 and that she had put her "heart and soul" into planting and taking care of.
She has also had to deal with late-night noise and littering by her student neighbors and those who attend their parties. "Sometimes it's just common sense that you can't leave 35 red cups outside on a windy day," she said.
She knows that not all Tufts students are responsible for these problems; she lives next door to a group of girls who she met on good terms.
"I took them in my basement, showed them puzzles I was doing, took them in the garden," she said.
Scenna hopes that last night's meeting will be helpful because there is too much about Somerville that she does not want to give up.
"The walk to Davis Square, ... the Wild Oats [Market], I have my gym nearby," she said. "I adore it and I have a garden and I just want to stay here as long as possible."
-by Marc Raifman
