Doing actual research.

A quick Google search (first few pages) found articles about the merchants of the following cities objecting to downtown closures:

 Holly, Michigan
 Fairhope, Alabama
 Macon, Georgia
 Tehachopi, Cal.
 Carlsbad, Cal
 Leesburg, VIrginia

 And last but not least Las Vegas, where the Sun newspaper has the following quote: 

“This is why we stopped closing the street off a few years ago,” Metzger said, adding that as far as she knew, only one owner favored closing the street. “It was too chaotic then — too many people just hanging out — and there weren’t nearly as many people back then as there are now.”

That's a money quote from a town that knows something about promotion -- and money.