Pedestrian-only streets keep getting pushed as the fix for dying downtowns, but I'm not convinced they work everywhere. I've watched my own city remove cars from two blocks last year, and while the patio seating is nice in summer, three independent shops closed within six months because delivery access became a nightmare. Are walkable urban cores actually a net positive for local economies, or do they just shift the problem a few blocks away? I'd love to hear from people in cities where these projects have been running for five-plus years—do the numbers ever improve over time, or is the early chaos just the new normal?