Street and Sidewalk Damage

Here are some pictures from my block

There is a a crack that runs the length of the block. It is completely straight. Another picture shows a crack between the water meter and the crack that runs the length of the block. They probably are directly above a pipe. There are similar cracks all along my block and on neighboring blocks. 

In some cases these cracks continue onto the sidewalk, even in recently poured concrete (below). It seems apparent that something is causing this damage. If this was simply due to aging the cracks would probably be random, not in straight lines. There are lots of cracks in the front of our house too. Our house was painted and within a week the new paint had a crack over an existing crack.