so it gets snowplow stuff. and a lot of road salt.

The boulevard is 100’ wide and this area is maybe 15’ deep of crappy lawn. it is a downhill slope and get sun all day. i suppose watering, seeding, aeriating would help it.

Yep, lots of salt. And it's carrying downhill. You are going to need to use the highest salt tolerant grass you can. Or if you want to plant it in with other, those will have to be salt tolerant plants.

https://www.eco-gem.com/gypsum-remediate-saline-sodic-soils/

Ok, put gypsum down. a bit of new soil. seed. been watering. so far so good.

neighbor 2 houses away (same side) has much better lawn. he waters occasionally.

neighbors on opposite side (lots of shade) both have in ground sprinklers. their lawns are awesome

Salt? Maybe. Now what kind of salt? Is it sodium based or magnesium based? Only a soil test will tell.

Are you willing to water once a week or every 5 days during the summer when it doesn't rain? If not then you might consider a different ground cover.

Its mn. pretty sure the tons of salt is sodium based. i can water. i havent watered boulevard in years. if ever.

Since it looks like that, and you describe it as baked, I'm going to suggest starting by spraying the surface with any clear shampoo like generic baby shampoo. You can often find apple scented clear shampoo at Dollar Tree if you think this could get expensive. The application rate is 3 ounces of shampoo per 1,000 square feet. You cannot overdo this - it's been tried by spraying 64 ounces per 1,000 square feet and it did no harm to the lawn.

Let's say you have 2,000 square feet of lawn. Pour 6 ounces of shampoo into a hose end sprayer and fill the container (slowly) with water. Swirl it around to mix but you don't want to make a sudsy mess. Spray it out as evenly at any setting until you're out of product. Then give the yard 1/2 to 1 inch of water to carry the shampoo down deeper into the soil. The idea is to revive the beneficial fungi in the soil. The shampoo allows water to move deeper into the soil to slow down evaporation and cool off the mass of soil underneath. These are ideal conditions for the beneficial microbes to thrive. The fungi will spread through the soil like mold through a loaf of bread - FAST once it gets started. After that your soil should retain water better and become soft following a rainstorm or other deep watering. As the days pass the soil will dry out and become firm again.

You can test this shampoo concept with a screwdriver. Try to stick a screwdriver into the soil now, before you use the shampoo. Note how hard it is to push in and how deep it goes. Then as soon as you spray the shampoo and water it, try the test again. The results should not be much different. However, come back in 3 weeks and try the test again. Most organic solutions take 3 weeks for the results to be come apparent, so don't get anxious if you don't see results after 2 weeks. If you see good results but you want better, repeat the shampoo. Again, you cannot overdo this.

When you begin to water, existing seeds will germinate and grow. It might be a weed patch for now, but at least the soil will be shaded from direct sunlight, and you will have roots in the ground. This is setting you up for a successful seeding in August after the summer heat breaks. As soon as the evenings begin to cool off, get ready for seeding. You can spray RoundUp to kill off the existing junk plants and seed with a mix of fescue, Kentucky bluegrass, and rye. If you aren't going for a showplace front lawn, then use the seed from any local source. It will have some weed seed mixed in, but that can be sprayed with something like Weed-b-Gon after the grasses get going. Fall is, far and away, the best time to seed northern grasses.

looks better now

What did you end up doing?

Added gypsum. throw down some seed. Couple wheelbarrows of dirt, here and there. watered a bunch. been very dry here. rest of lawn is parched. im going to just keep it watered for rest of summer. aerate this fall.

You can sort of see area in 2nd pic at end where grass is bit thinner. there is some gravel from base of bushes that is kind of mixed into soil. area does get more sun. i might throw down more seed since i am watering it. wish it was as nice as area closer to me.

pic is looking west. by 2-3pm area is full sun.