Baton Rouge’s streets are changing—and the Perk Up Perkins demonstration held Saturday, August 16th, shows exactly why that matters.

Led by neighborhood advocates Mysti Byrnes and Julie Becnel—and supported by CPEX and AARP along with local businesses, nonprofits, and community partners—Perk Up Perkins invited residents to reimagine a key stretch of Perkins Road as a safer, more vibrant place to walk, bike, and connect. For one day, temporary crosswalks connected pedestrians to sidewalk art, a pop-up park, and live music, activating vacant spaces and transforming a corridor that’s long been a destination for dining, shopping and recreation, but challenging to navigate safely on foot.

The project was powered by grassroots energy, and its roots run deep in Baton Rouge’s citywide push for safer, more inclusive streets.

From Better Block to Better Streets

CPEX’s connection to Perkins Road goes back to 2016, when we partnered with the city, local businesses, and area stakeholders to develop a Better Block demonstration along this same stretch of the roadway. That weekend-long effort cleared vegetation to make a long-used footpath under the overpass safer and more visible, added temporary crosswalks and sidewalks, and activated vacant spaces with pop-up shops and art.

The goal was simple: help residents, business owners, and decision-makers see what a safer, more connected, and welcoming Perkins Road could look like.

Nearly a decade later, the impact is clear. The 2016 Better Block demonstration sparked efforts to make lasting improvements to the neighborhood, including creating wider sidewalks in key areas and new designs for a formal underpass crossing now being advanced through the MOVEBR program. And as Perk Up Perkins shows, it also inspired residents to take the next step—building on that momentum with their own ideas and energy for additional improvements.

Community-Driven Routes to Safety

The latest effort began when two local parents, Mysti and Julie, frustrated by how difficult it was to safely cross Perkins Road with their kids, started talking to neighbors. Those conversations revealed just how many people shared the concern—not just parents, but other residents, business owners, and visitors who felt the corridor wasn’t living up to its potential as a walkable, people-friendly destination.

The group secured an AARP grant to host a demonstration focused on three key intersections: Ferndale, Hollydale, and Cedardale. Volunteers acted as crossing guards to help people navigate safely, illustrating the need for a long-term solution like a pedestrian-activated signal. Sidewalk art framed missing sidewalk connections, inviting people to imagine a continuous, comfortable walking route. Temporary planters and visual cues highlighted how driveway space could be better defined for safety and access. With simple signage enhancements, we saw an increase in drivers stopping for pedestrians. When these types of improvements are made permanent, everybody wins: people are safer and more likely to frequent the businesses and destinations that make the Perkins Road overpass a culturally distinctive area of our city. 

While the event was playful and family-friendly, its message was serious: the current layout makes it too risky to cross the street, and there are proven tools to fix it.

Putting Complete Streets on the Map

Perk Up Perkins is exactly the kind of community-led project Baton Rouge’s new Complete Streets ordinance is designed to support.

Adopted in 2024, the ordinance was led by CPEX in collaboration with the City of Baton Rouge, the Mayor’s Complete Streets Advisory Committee, and many dedicated partners. Ranked among the Top 10 in the U.S. by Smart Growth America this year, the ordinance builds on Baton Rouge’s original 2014 Complete Streets policy and formalizes a simple but powerful vision: streets should be designed for everyone—whether walking, biking, taking transit, or driving—while prioritizing equity, safety, and accessibility.

That vision didn’t materialize overnight. Since helping pass the city’s first Complete Streets policy in 2014, CPEX has worked alongside the Mayor’s Complete Streets Advisory Committee, AARP, local leaders, agencies, and residents to make safety and access the standard for public roadway projects. The 2024 ordinance takes that commitment further, ensuring that pedestrian, bicycle, and transit considerations are integrated into the city-parish’s processes for identifying and developing transportation projects.

A Crossroads for Baton Rouge

Complete Streets policies work because they connect local priorities—like economic vitality, public health, and neighborhood character—with the nuts and bolts of street design. Safer, more accessible streets mean more customers for local businesses, more opportunities for active living, and fewer barriers for residents who rely on walking, biking, or transit to get where they need to go.

Events like Perk Up Perkins help make that connection tangible. They give people a chance to experience a street designed with their needs in mind and to see how small changes—like clearly marked crosswalks, better-defined driveways, or shaded sidewalks—can make a big difference in daily life.

For Perkins Road, those changes could strengthen an already thriving commercial corridor, making it convenient for families to visit multiple businesses in one trip without moving a car, safer for all to cross the street, and more inviting for visitors exploring Baton Rouge.

Blueprints Other Neighborhoods Can Follow

While Perk Up Perkins was rooted in one neighborhood’s concerns, its approach offers a model for communities across Baton Rouge and beyond. The demonstration combined local leadership with technical support, drew on existing momentum from past planning work, and used low-cost, high-impact tools to spark conversations about long-term solutions.

That’s the heart of community-driven planning: when people see what’s possible, they’re more likely to support—and advocate for—permanent changes.

The Road Ahead

Baton Rouge’s Top 10-ranked Complete Streets ordinance is both a milestone and a mandate. It reflects years of persistence and partnership, and it sets the expectation that future roadway projects will serve all of the people who use them, however they travel.

The success of Perk Up Perkins is a reminder that implementation isn’t just about policies and plans—it’s about people. It’s about neighbors who see a problem and decide to fix it, businesses that invest in their community, and partners who bring expertise to help turn ideas into action.

Complete Streets work best when they belong to the people who use them every day. On Perkins Road, that vision is already taking shape—and it’s a sign of what’s possible for neighborhoods all across Baton Rouge.