By Steve Babcock

Correction: This story has been corrected to define Kathy Doerksen as a resident rather than a property owner.

Despite the threat of rain and the early hour on Saturday morning, students and community residents joined together to clean up the Symphony neighborhood as part of a larger citywide service day.

The volunteers donned shovels, garbage bags and leaf blowers to clean up remnants of the winter as well as the general debris that accompanies living in a high-traffic area of a city.

Future resident Tori Blackhart, who coordinated the cleanup efforts for the Sym-phony neighborhood as part of “Bost-on Shines 2004,” said the energy behind the cleanup effort made her excited to move into the area.

“My husband and I are not even officially neighbors, but this is a great way to meet people,” Blackhart, who is moving to the neighborhood in June, said. “We like the mixed environment of living with students. It’s great to see them out today, great to see the vitality.”

Also working in Blackhart’s area volunteering was 15-year resident Cindy Brophy. Though Brophy said she was affected by the events of the last year including the post-Super Bowl riots near Northeastern’s campus, she was unwilling to write college students off as reckless or bad neighbors.

“All we ask is that students respect us just as we respect them,” she said. “Don’t pull up our plants, don’t throw beer cans. We like living with students, the diver-sity. That’s why we moved here.”

Students pitching in with the cleanup seemed to also want the peaceful, friendly community the neighbors spoke of.

“It seems like a lot of neighbors bashed Northeastern at the public hearing [following the Super Bowl riot]. They always say that the community is ‘our’ community, and we want that,” said Lily Ra