Group meets Friday about beautifying Perkins corridor

A group of business owners, residents and city-parish officials are meeting at noon Friday at Chelsea’s Café to discuss ways to beautify the section of Perkins Road from the overpass to Acadian Thruway. Steele Pollard, a developer and resident who is helping to organize the effort, and Boo Thomas, president and CEO of the Center for Planning Excellence, say it’s time to take a fresh look at the area because of all the new developments in the works for that section of Perkins. “This is a grassroots effort to talk about what could be done,” Thomas says. Pollard says some of the things that will be discussed include planting trees and bushes and pedestrian improvements. “We want to get everyone thinking along the same page,” he says. Pollard and Thomas say there are no plans to come out with mandates for Perkins property owners. “We have no control,” he says. “We just want people to look at the area and things that could benefit everybody.”—Timothy Boone