i lived in this small city (a few hundred k) many years ago and like a big main-type street in a core area had been ripped up for nearly a decade to update some kind of utility line. this is the US btw. during the utility work, it was obviously impassable for vehicles, but also for pedestrians. it was a big cluster fuck and the businesses/housing around there were a mess. everybody got so used to avoiding the area completely over the years that the business and residence owners around there convinced the city to allow them to host a no-vehicle block party with food trucks and street drinking for a weekend once it was all restored, to remind people of what's there. obviously the block party was the shit, hundreds of people just standing in the streets, music, eating food, wandering around through the now porous membranes of street, sidewalk, patios/porches. it was how urban life should be and probably is in older cultures.

then it all went back to "normal" and now it's just another section of busy city street with cars vrooming by ever second. people talked about requesting it to be some special district on weekends, but that never happened. because ALL HAIL CARS.