Date:  Fri, 6 Oct 1995 23:31:21 -0400

From:  Virginia Clark <vpclark[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]MOOSE.UVM.EDU>

Subject: Re: Another Lexical Item



    I have sloppily not recorded where I obtained this information, but

in some lecture notes I find that I've listed the following terms as being

used for the grassy strip between the sidewalk (parallel to the street) and

the street/curb: berm, boulevard, boulevard stip, parking, parking strip,

parkway, sidewalk plot, tree lawn, neutral ground, devil strip, tree bank,

city strip.



    Every semester I ask my students (in Burlington, Vermont) what they

call this strip, and every semester they all look at me blankly. I think

that's odd, because it is a thing we need to talk about here--e.g., parking

on it is forbidden during Vermont's wretched "mud season"; the owner of the

land/house on the other side of it is responsible for keeping it mowed;

every spring (*after* mud season), the city offers free trees to be planted

there. I would think we'd settle on a name or names for it.



    Are all those terms listed above still in use somewhere?



 -- Virginia



At 08:21 AM 10/6/95 -0700, Allen Mabery wrote:

>I call those grassy strips between the sidewalk and the street "parking

>strips". I've never heard them called parkways.

>Allen

>maberry[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]u.washington.edu

>

>On Fri, 6 Oct 1995, //www.usa.net/~ague wrote:

>

>> Parkways and sidewalks

>>

>> Within the last 20 years after moving to Colorado Springs, CO, I picked up an

>> extra definition for parkway, which previously connoted for me wide,

>> green-scaped, paved roads.

>>

>> In CS, a lot of neighborhoods have 2 foot to 10 foot strips of grass running

>> parallel to, and between the sidewalk and the street. These are called

>> parkways as well.

>>

>> Have others seen this usage?

>>

>> -- Jim

>>

>

>