I started using “folks” years ago as a substitute for the gender-neutral use of “guys” or “you guys” which I’m trying to eliminate from my speech.
@Pizzagirl, the strip of land between the sidewalk and the curb may not be a “parkway” out in the 'burbs where you are, but that’s the official name for it in the City of Chicago, used in numerous municipal ordinances. The city owns the parkway and plants, prunes, and removes trees there at municipal expense, but the adjacent property owner is legally responsible for maintaining the parkway and can be fined for failure to do so, e.g., by allowing it to become overgrown with weeds. The adjacent property owner may also landscape the parkway as long as it doesn’t damage the trees, and any permanent structure placed there (such as a fence or a raised planter) requires a city permit.
Like many words, however, “parkway” has multiple meanings. In Chicago, the grassy and/or landscaped median in a boulevard is also called a parkway. And certain streets are also known as parkways, e.g., Diversey Parkway, Fullerton Parkway, and Congress Parkway, all of them having eastern termini in the city’s lakefront parks. Father west, Diversey and Fullerton become avenues rather than parkways. Congress becomes the Eisenhower Expressway.
In contrast, in New York City and New York State a “parkway” is a type of limited access highway generally running through a park or other undeveloped, scenic area. Trucks and commercial vehicles are generally prohibited on New York parkways, many of which feature distinctively graceful stone arch overpasses with clearances too low for standard tractor-trailer rigs. So, for example, the Henry Hudson Parkway runs along the Hudson River up the West Side of Manhattan and the Bronx from Midtown to the city’s northern boundary, where it becomes the Saw Mill River Parkway through Westchester County, which in turn connects to the Taconic State Parkway running up through the east side of the Hudson Valley.
Maybe in big cities anything with grass can be deemed a “park”…
Just checked the LA Municipal Code. It, too, uses the term “parkway” to refer to the landscaped strip of land between sidewalk and curb.
I found this in the San Diego municipal code:
But I’m not entirely sure where the public right-of-way is - suspect from the sidewalk to the curb.
Well, no. Your private front lawn, side lawn, and back lawn aren’t “parks.” Nor is the parkway between the sidewalk and the curb a “park.” In Chicago, parks are managed by the Chicago Park District, an independent taxing body responsible for 580 city parks, 77 pools, 24 beaches, 11 museums, 10 harbors, 10 bird and nature sanctuaries, two botanic conservatories, and a zoo (and, no doubt, a partridge in a pear tree). Parkways are managed by the City of Chicago’s Department of Streets and Sanitation.
^^^My, oh my, you sound like my husband.
You have to DEDICATE a piece of property to the government and it has to be ACCEPTED for it to be govt property and maintained by the govt. When that happens, you give up all rights to the property and it’s all under govt control. Private developers sometimes do that for streets and sidewalks in subdivisions, but the govt doesn’t have to accept the property, especially if the streets and sidewalks don’t meet govt standards (eg, too narrow, too steep, etc.)
It’s always one more pass of the lawn mower than you’d think, to water it you have to hydrate the sidewalk and street along with it, and when the sidewalk tilts (as it always eventually does), the grass ends up looking as if a blind barber attended it.
Call it a nuisance.
“The parkway” is the Merritt Parkway to me. 
It’s so skinny in my area of the country I don’t think of it as anything but the dogs restroom.
West Coast vs. East Coast
standing in line vs. standing on line
pizza vs. pie
First time I was with some NY friends who talked about ordering a pie, I wondered why they wanted to go straight to ordering dessert.
Never heard pie for pizza without the whole phrase (NY-NJ-PA), usually just order pizza. Except in New Haven, where it’s a-beetz
What I’ve heard in NYC is “get a slice” for pizza- especially from a cart or pop up. I’ve also heard a pizza called a pie.
I never heard stand “on” line while I was on the east coast.
Way back when (30 years) on Cape Cod my friend warned us not to order a “milk shake” because that’s what you got (shaken milk). A “frappe” would be our version of “milk shake”. And “soda” should be called " pop" otherwise you’d get a seltzer water concoction similar to a “malt”. We let her order at the ice cream counter…
Has “going to hell in a hand basket” been brought up yet? My mom used to say that all the time. Always wondered about alternate modes of transportation…
Standing “on” instead of “in” line is strictly a NYC thing in my experience.
The frappe vs milkshake is a Massachusetts thing. At an ice cream parlor such as Bailey’s, an ice cream soda was definitely a concoction with a flavored syrup–chocolate, for example-- mixed with soda water/seltzer and topped with a scoop of ice cream. A soda was a soft drink, such as Coke, root beer, 7-Up, ginger ale. “Pop” is not used in New England. On the other hand, some people in Massachusetts used the term “tonic” instead of soda. They also called chocolate shot/sprinkles “jimmies.”
I love “go to hell in a handbasket,” but I’ve never known its origin.
I grew up in PA, not New England, and said jimmies, but I’ve sort of “converted” to sprinkles over the years!
That’s interesting, Pizzagirl. Brigham’s claimed to have invented the term. 
I’ve also heard “jimmies” for decades, but grew up with and prefer “sprinkles”. My mom used to love an egg cream- any one familiar with that? Milk, seltzer and chocolate syrup. (Forgot to mention, their preference was to use U-Bet chocolate syrup)
Yep. I think of it as a New York egg cream. Very hard to find in the Midwest.