Jean wrote:
I've lived in Northeastern Ohio my whole life. We call it the tree lawn.
It doesn't matter if there is no tree, it's still the tree lawn. I never
heard it called anything else. Maybe my world is too small.

Growing up in Southeastern Wisconsin, everyone I knew called it "the space
between the sidewalk and the street". Of course it wasn't a big topic of
conversation, and people weren't obsessed with giving things nicknames back
then. Eventually I did start to hear it called the "parkway" or "parkway
strip".

Part of the reason for such non-concern about it was that in the City of
Milwaukee, the trees in the strip were planted by, and owned by the City.
The adjoining property owners were not allowed to landscape the strip in any
way. They were expected to keep the grass tended: weeds picked, mowed
properly, and watered. Some folks re-sodded or re-seeded the grass, but
anything more than that could lead to a ticket and removal. In commercial
areas, a request for pavement could be made. Carriage walks could be
installed in residential areas, but they had to be maintained to the same
standards as the sidewalk.

So the ordinary person only had to worry about watering and mowing the
grass, and keeping the dandelions down. There wasn't much of a reason to
come up with a special name for "the strip between the sidewalk and the
street", or "between the sidewalk and the street" for short.

The first time I heard it given any kind of derogatory name was a few years
after moving to Portland, Oregon where I heard it called the "hell strip".
By that time I had noticed that it wasn't a standardized, sanitized zone
like in Milwaukee, and that people landscaped them very differently, and
very seldom does that mean a single tree surrounded by sod. I don't think
I've ever seen anyone watering their "hell strip", either. But my
subdivision doesn't have sidewalks, so it's not something I see everyday.

--
Warren H.

==========
Disclaimer: My views reflect those of myself, and not my
employer, my friends, nor (as she often tells me) my wife.
Any resemblance to the views of anybody living or dead is
coincidental. No animals were hurt in the writing of this
response -- unless you count my dog who desperately wants
to go outside now.
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