I'm sorry, I don't understand. I couldn't find The Record article online. What did it say? Can you post it?
Yes, the street will never look the same. I have pictures from the late 60's early 70's that show a dense canopy over the whole street. They were mostly swamp maples, though some have said Norway maples. The problem, of course, is that after 75 years or so, they become tremendous liabilities. They can cut homes in half, destroy cars and injure people when they crash down. We just paid $1800 to remove a maple on our property that was falling apart. That included stump grinding. We'll also need to replace part of the sidewalk a tree limb damaged.
We planted four ornamental pear trees on the curb. Not quite as "majestic", but more managable over the long term.