Bradenton residents love the Riverwalk, and want more of it, survey says

The goal of a six-month long survey may have been to determine what residents want to see when the city of Bradenton extends Riverwalk to the east, but it ended up digging much deeper into the character of the city itself.

Merdith Sadin, director of research at the Center for Active Design, works at evaluating public spaces and potential public spaces across the United States. Sadin personalized the survey to truly evaluate what people want, but also the “civic health” of the city, which translates to how people really feel about their city, public officials and surrounding environment.

In almost every question, Sadin came away surprised.

“People are really attached to the existing Riverwalk,” said Sadin, who presented her findings at a public meeting Thursday evening.“Seventy-nine percent say it is very welcoming and those numbers are extremely high for a public space. Another 94 percent said they would recommend Riverwalk to others. Bradenton is really high with community pride.”

“I never see stats like these,” she said.

Sadin broke down the survey results into five categories and made recommendations that will filter into the master plan design, being performed by Kimley Horn, which designed the existing Riverwalk. The expansion will begin just east of Manatee Memorial Hospital and extend about 1 1/2 miles to the east.

The survey was funded through the Manatee Community Foundation, which was awarded $100,000 from the Knight Foundation.

The almost 900 participants in the survey, according to Sadin, like the existing Riverwalk and want the expansion should be a source of community pride.

Though the majority of respondents said public art should be essential in the expansion, particularly historic public art, the overwhelming majority who took part in a photo experiment favored local artists over well known national artists. Respondents specifically liked the idea of using the work of student artists.

Respondents also pointed to the need to keep Riverwalk as diverse as possible, another shocking result for Sadin.

“This is very rare,” she said. “A lot of our other cities we have worked with have racial, age or ethnic segregation. Social encounters are a bedrock of civic life so the expansion is an opportunity to create more.”

Other priorities for those responding were to ensure the expansion stays as natural as possible, perhaps including picnic areas, distance markers for those walking and biking the Riverwalk from end to end, public art, plenty of trash cans and lighting and perhaps some designated rest areas along the way.

“People don’t want a real grand vision for the expansion,” Sadin said. “Some 60 percent say they just want a walking, relaxing and natural environment with more social gathering places.”

Sadin said 42 percent of respondents said they would be interested in volunteering for events or cleanups at the expanded Riverwalk.

“That’s higher than the national average, which is about 25 percent of Americans that volunteer and the majority of that is through churches or civic organizations,” she said. “I just don’t see numbers this high across the board anywhere. It really speaks to the fact that residents take pride in their community, want to know one another and are eager to help one another.”

Riverwalk users Sandi Scarpino and Carol Leyva were asked Friday what they thought about the survey results.

Scarpino said she hopes the city will ensure there is open green space included and small exercise stations are located along the route.

Leyva was more to the point of how most respondents felt in keeping things as natural as possible.

“As long as there are places for kids to play and dogs to walk, I’m good with it,” she said.

This story was originally published March 23, 2018 at 3:57 PM with the headline "Bradenton residents love the Riverwalk, and want more of it, survey says."