ION

Definitely the first picture. It being walled off makes tonnes more sense in a city, both irl and in minecraft. Your block choice and design used there isn't exactly what I'd call good though, but that can always be changed. lol


Edit: While on the subject, having different elevations does a LOT for any place with many buildings around. In cities especially it can really make it feel a lot more alive. Might be something you want to take into consideration moving forward with ION. Just be sure to do it properly if you do it though,design stuff, don't just have random surface height differences everywhere.