@AndyD said:
no doubt the street will eventually be levelled with the pavement, and filled with seats, shrubs & trees.
That's what they did in the town where @kluurs lives; I grew up in a nearby town. Of course that happened back in the Stone Age when I was but a teenager. They closed off the street and re-landscaped to include trees, benches, etc., in an effort to make it welcoming. And to create barriers so people who had been accustomed to turning onto Lake Street from Harlem Avenue (super busy intersection) didn't do that once vehicle traffic was prohibited.
Some years later, they took it all out and opened it back up to traffic.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/1988/11/20/oak-park-ends-mall-days/