What about anything that grows? That grows well, around where you live. Lavender, Crawling succulents and little flowers, vines, grasses even... Just create little green spaces where its all dry earth.
http://www.guerrillagardening.org/guerrillagardening/gg350l a few median strips full of lavender could be nice. I guess getting a few of us to grow cuttings and ask our neighbors with massive lavender bushes if they would let us dig one or two for such a project could turn a few square meters of dying lawn into a drought proof patch of green life.