Not much more to tell...There was a row of hedges between the tree and the sidewalk/street to the right. To the left was a parking lot for a movie theater.
Here is a wider view.

It probably wouldn't register to a car driving by on the street, but to a pedestrian walking by (like me), or to some one parking in the adjacent lot it would stick out; maybe not as a bicycle, but as something.

Seriously I think it is just some one's attempt to prevent bike theft, although, I have seen art "installations" on local college campuses that this would pass for.