A humorous but not very surprising note: it would appear various properties are now reneging on the payment aspect of this situation, effectively rescinding their own votes to pedestrianize the street in the first place (as payment was explicitly part of that from the beginning). Ya gotta love people: sit and talk and debate and discuss and argue for something for hours and vote for it and everything (again including the payment portion of it), and then just change their minds later and drop the ball, nullifying all that previous effort.
We can only assume that if this new trend continues, transit authorities will immediately remove the official they've put in place (since nobody would then be paying his salary) and presumably the entire thing would then collapse, despite all the fuss. But we'll keep you informed!
Steve