Ward 3 Councilman Jim Carbone is working on a plan to beautify Pearl Road by unifying the jumble of storefronts into blocks of consistent architecture, landscaping, and brick and stone color.

His plan seeks to make new businesses conform to specific architectural standards and brick color, and add hedge rows, pine trees and black fencing and lamp posts.

Pearl Road would be broken into districts, and areas that are still developing -- like the Whitney-Pearl intersection and Giant Eagle's new Market District store  -- would be guided toward a uniform look.

It's not too late to make an impact, says Carbone, who has long cringed at what he calls a "hodgepodge" look on Pearl.

"At Whitney and Pearl, in the next five years, we could see a dozen new businesses," he said. 

So what do you think? We're taking a poll to see if residents agree with Carbone's idea.