NAL but in most jurisdictions anything that happens in public is freely recordable.
The illegal part here is likely the attachment of a device to public property without permission from local authorities.
However, the same service would likely be legal if a few people were hired to walk around with microphones. Or potentially if the microphones were attached to vehicles.
Edit - also might be legal if OP purchased / leased some property facing the street.
Just because it would be legal for you to record it, doesn’t mean it’s legal for you to hide a recorder there without your presence.
The “use of a public pole” isn’t really the issue.
Fun fact: Nielsen actually does this (hires people to walk around with microphones) for purposes of broadcast TV/radio audience ratings: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portable_People_Meter