Quote:
Originally Posted by badrunner
Cul-de-sac is just real-estate-agent-speak for a dead end, because no one wants to live on a dead end street  . |
I think the language distinction can be important though.
In chicago, any old side-street like those in the OP's that just dead ends into a park, or a rail ROW, or a cemetery, or whatever would never be called a "cul de sac", just simply a "dead end street".
Now, over the past several decades in chicago, we have seen some examples of former side-streets that went through that have been intentionally closed-off on one end to car traffic and given a circular turnaround (while preserving ped and bike connectivity). Those are referred to as a "cul de sac".