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Perhaps a Boulevard — 9 Comments

  1. A neighbor left a comment on Nextdoor.com pointing out that “boulevard” is defined in ordinance at StPaul.gov, https://is.gd/IeZck8 as follows: “Boulevard shall mean the public right-of-way lying between the property line and sidewalk, and between the sidewalk and the roadway, or where no sidewalk exists, between the property line and the roadway.” It goes on to define limitations for boulevard plantings and to distinguish those from boulevard rain gardens, which I did not know is such a formally sanctioned thing.

  2. In mid-Michigan, we called it the “tax grass.” I’m unclear on the reasoning – it belonged to the city? it defined the property on which the homeowner paid taxes? Most important was that you had to maintain it even though it wasn’t yours.

  3. Wow, I always though boulevard implied the grass in the middle. Anyway, in historic downtown Savannah, it’s either a “tree lawn” or a “tree well.”

  4. Tree well, eh. I could see that if there were an actual well, as you see in some cities.
    urban tree well

  5. So what do you call the strip of grass and plants in the middle of the road?

  6. Right, that’s what struck this Easterner as weird about calling the hellstrip a boulevard. In my upbringing a boulevard is the entire road with a green strip in the middle (like Summit Ave. in St. Paul or Comm. Ave. in Boston). The central green strip in isolation never had a name, that I knew of.

  7. The central area is called the “median” in central North Dakota. As in “keep off the median” signs

  8. Gotcha, thanks. That’s what it’s called in many places I believe. But what was the grassy space between sidewalk and street called?

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