What term do YOU use for the strip of (usually) grassy space between the
sidewalk and the street?

I've noticed that the term used in one place is unrecognized in another,
and vice versa.  Is this something that varies from one town to another
depending on strictly local tradition, or is it regional?

46 responses total.

It was called the "tree belt" in Massachusetts.

The easement.

I've heard it called the "margin" by a lawyer, so that's what I've been
calling it.

 Why, are you scared of lawyers?

The grassy knoll!

The city owned part of the lawn.

I grew up calling it "the parkway".  Since moving to MI I've heard it called
"the extension" (or "the lawn extension").

re 2: That's an incorrect use, most likely.  Easements are areas on your
property (that you own) that utilities can dig up or drive bulldozers
through.  See your mortgage paperwork, the survey will have the easements
marked.  Usually, they're for buried gas lines and areas under power lines.

 The rumpkin.

re #4. GOOD one, Katie.   I've never heard anyone give it a name before.

The Bus stop
The Trash Pile

Verge.

The berm.

Oh, but the city can (and does) dig up this easement if they need
to access lines or mains.  The homeowner is obligated to follow rules
regarding maintenance and there are limitations on what can be
installed or constructed in this area. Trees located within this
area are not the homeowner's trees yet I believe the homeowner 
maintains some liability.

But you're probably right and this is not a correct legal term.
It's just what I call it.

I've heard it called the "lawn extension" or "extension" as well.

In East Lansing, it was pretty much universally called "the parkway".

Here in Ann Arbor, my landlord insists on calling it "the lawn extension".
(He's lived in Ann Arbor all his life and says he's never heard it called
anything but that.

(Rane or Jennie, how about linking this to language?)

I was thinking of doing that, but then, everyone reads this hear, so
why would someone want to read it again in Language? Nevertheless, it
is an opportunity to practice my new fairwitnessry, so let me see if I
can figure out the arcane instructions I have.........

The reason to link stuff from Agora to a specialty conference, OMO as a 
FW with several years experience  ;) , is that it'll hang around there
considerably after Agora has rolled over to the next season for the
enjoyment of those who choose to go there later.

or something like that.

I have linked this item to language (item 42). I just noticed, though,
that this item here (I do know how to spell this word, but have lapses)
is itself linked - from where? Actually, it was fun: POWER! 

(When you link an item to another conference, it's labeled as "linked"
in both conferences.  "Linked" is a symmetric property -- Picospan doesn't
record which conference was the original one.)

Well, back to the subject....we don't have a "lawn extension", because
there is no sidewalk. Nevertheless, several feet of our lawn near the
road is road easement. Is that still the "lawn extension" according to
those using that term?

The physical road or street is built in a government-owned strip of
land known as the "right-of-way".  Usually the R.O.W. is fifty to 66
feet wide (66 was the standard for rural roads in Michigan, many of
which of course go on to become urban streets).

If the R.O.W., say, is 50 feet wide, and the street itself is 24
feet wide, that leaves another 13 feet on each side.  If there's a
four foot wide sidewalk, seven feet back from the curb, that means
the edge of the right-of-way is two feet back from the sidewalk, or
to put it a different way, as you walk from your house toward the
street, your property ends two feet before the sidewalk.

Those are fairly typical values, but YOUR MILEAGE WILL VARY!!  The
only way to know about property boundaries with any precision would
be to examine the official survey of the property, or have one made.
The point I'm making is that the sidewalk is almost always built on
public land, and not necessarily right up against the edge of the
right-of-way.

Note also that where a very large road widening is contemplated, the
city or state may be in a position of having to buy extra land from
the fronting property owners.

An easement is a whole different thing.  Most often in this context it
would have to do with portions of your lot to which a public utility
has some limited rights.

I always knew it as an extension.

grass.

re 23: that would explain why it doesn't show up as an easement on our
survey (we just refinanced, so I had a recent glance at it).  Our property
line ends before the sidewalk (or exactly at it...whatever..).

  In Detroit, "that which still needs mowing" was about 6 feet wide, 
with the sidewalk being 3 feet wide and about 7 feet for my dad's
precious lawn.

   I've always heard the term extension.

We always called it the "parking" though I always thought that seemed
funny because cards park in the street, not on the grass.

  << you playing with a full deck today??>><<G>>

PicoSpan sucks...can't edit responses.  When will we get a real
conferencing system?

Do you mean responses you've already made and entered, or a response
you're currently entering?  If the former, then keep in mind that
you can't un-say something you blurt out in a conversation, either.

You can always expurgate & re-enter - assumuing it's *your* response you
want to edit, of course.  And that won't keep anyone who can type
     more /bbs/censored
from reading it.  But personally, I consider the stability of stuff once
entered to be a virtue.  It's a real pain to read responses that have
been made irrelevant because whatever they responded to has been changed.

Sorry to poker a little fun at you kentn, I hope you would know, even
without the  <<G>>, that is was not at all serious. 
  
About editing, and the unspoken reference to Confer (tm), which allows
such an operation, I consider it subject to not only the innocent
corrections that you would wish (wouldn't we all on occasion!) but
also (as I and others have +witnessed+) also subject to some rather
vicious abuses. Given my druthers, I'd rather subject myself to an
occasional typo (and friendly jesting from it, I even laugh at myself),
than create an environment that can be as badly misused (!) as is
Confer (tm) every now and then. 
  
Besides, for the diligent searcher, the existance of 2-3 versions of
a thought that took time to polish shows more maturity on the writer
part than simply the finished "ascii plop." 
  
but then I've been known to have different opinions every now and then.

This response has been erased.

  <<awwh, popcorn, there was some wonderful drift going on ... <g> >>

The boulevard. (Provenance: non-Chicago Illinois)

that~r wasteland of tar where the grass is bold enough to grow

The City of Milan Dept. of Public Works calls it the parkway, they
want the leaves piled onto it and *not* in the street.

- Backtalk version 1.3.30 - Copyright 1996-2006, Jan Wolter and Steve Weiss