10 months later, City of Mankato, local businesses offer feedback on Riverfront Dr. redesign

MANKATO, Minn. (KEYC) - The Mankato city council met tonight to look at preliminary results from a study for the Riverfront Drive corridor demonstration project.

“No matter what you do here, someone will love it and someone won’t,” said Mankato City Manager Susan Arntz.

After changing from four lanes to three, Riverfront Drive underwent a temporary redesign 10 months ago, to fit with the city’s demonstration project.

On February 27, the Mankato city council heard both positive and negative feedback about the design in an early study.

The project’s goal was to improve pedestrian access to local businesses and create safe roadway conditions for traffic.

But what do local businesses think and experience?

“I’ve seen a lot more people downtown than usual,” We’ve been down here for probably about 15 years.” Carl Nordmeier, owner of Tune Town.

Others, however, have changed gears and begun hoofing it, rather than brave the lanes.

“Yeah, we’ve seen an absolute increase in foot traffic in Old Town,” said Jenna Odegard, owner of Hazelkin and Bumblelou. “[There’s been] an increase in just the attitude of ‘let’s go for a stroll!’”

The study also showed that the number of vehicle crashes decreased on Riverfront Drive, along with the severity of crashes.

“We’ve seen people get hit by cars,” said Nordmeier. “If this passes, it’ll be a lot safer for pedestrians. I’m all for it. It’s gonna slow the traffic down.”

The study also identified issues concerning merges, traffic congestion, and road navigation.

A final study will be shown to the city council in April.

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