"If you don't live here, it feels like it's really so far away," she says, leaning over her garden fence. "It felt so far away, like it's out in the boondocks."

The Truman Show?

Strawberry Hill has parks, a corner store and an abundance of families and children, but there are some conspicuous absences.

The neighborhood holds a Star Market, a public library, a liquor store, a hair salon and Groomingdale's Pet Salon within its borders, but is home to only two food establishments where people can eat out--the Panda House and Guido's Cafe.

"It's pretty residential," says one mother. There isn't a cafe shop or a restaurant where people would actually go to hang out."

And on Saturday afternoon, as water bubbled up through the brick sidewalk at the corner of Huron Avenue and Cushing Street--the two main thoroughfares of the neighborhood--Strawberry Hill seemed eerily empty.

Canina's, the Haggerty and the West Cambridge Youth Center, which is housed in the school, were all closed. As birds chirped on Cushing Street, only a few residents could be seen outside their homes.

In Corcoran Park, the sunny streets surrounding picturesque townhouses straight from The Truman Show were empty.