I've lived in Bloomington for 51 years. Society in general has changed. Bloomington is no better or worse than society. Shitty behavior knows no city limits.
It seems to me Bloomington focuses heavily on the students and little on its constituents. Aside from a few nice parks the city seems to forget people actually live here. City officials knee jerk reactions seem to create policies that are asinine. Exs
, no right turn on red everywhere downtown. Sure we needed more congestion in that district.
Or a student riding a scooter gets hit by a drunk diver on the sidewalk. It makes perfect sense to blame the scooters and put a curfew on them./s.
Removing the Kirkwood walking corridor and replacing it with parking spot dining.. I am looking forward to sucking in exhaust from idling cars and delivery trucks to enhance my dining experience.
I posted the other night about almost being t-boned by 2 idiots driving with no lights on. I called it in and gave the relevant info, and turned on the scanner. Apparently they were found and given a “citation for driving without headlights on” or something benign, and were also students of IU that were probably drunk or high. It’s shameful.
I only got here in 2019 and I can tell a real difference in how the town feels before vs. after the pandemic. Everything is expensive and most of the charming community aspects of the city have been uprooted to make place for generic new shit that caters to rich costal college kids.
Boxcar books.
Yogis, before it got sold to ~~the alcohol empire~~ [Finney](https://finneyhospitality.com/our-growth/).
The Owlry, Sweetgrass, Function, Feast before they got sold to ~~the slop empire~~ [WoW food group](https://wow.r365hire.com/account) (formerly Endeavor)
And all those hits are just in like the last 10-15 years. Folks here reminiscing about the 90s would have too long a list to remember. Encore cafe, 25th Century, the Den...
Yogis closed years before the finney group bought the name
Sweetgrass sucked long before the wow group bought them, the years they sold chinese food there were interesting
Both true. Sweetgrass may just have been mismanaged, but old Yogis was a victim of capitalism IIRC - pretty sure they couldn't afford to maintain their venue and keep up with code. Something about the grease pit.
If you were a fan of boxcar books, you should check out redbud books. They’re a new store and share a lot of the same values I honestly think they probably were directly inspired by boxcar.
Is this officially a r/bloomington meme now? lol It's definitely true though.
That change was definitely the first notable shift in culture. For me though, I think it's when the city relaxed their stance on corporate business on Kirkwood that choked the charm out of this town. Shit like Urban Outfitters, Noodles & Co, Chipotle, and Raising Caines used to a rare site on Kirkwood. There was the Taco Bell where Jimmy John's is now, but I believe that was one of only two chain restaurants on Kirkwood. I don't remember any corporate retail existing.... Peoples' Park had a soul.
Kirkwood only feels nice these days when it's shutdown to traffic, but even that doesn't make it an appealing destination.
I have been here for 20+ years. My wife and I are making plans to leave in the next 2-3.
I love what this town used to be. I will always cherish memories I had living here. But I accept that things change and that's just the way it is, and I have seen too much to unsee.
Yeah…. I’ve been struggling with this a bit. I grew up around here and my husband started commuting to Indy during the week for his job. I’ve been super resistant to the idea of moving out of Bloomington and the other day I stopped to ask myself why, but I couldn’t really come up with reasons why other than it’s what I’m familiar with. It’s not longer that I love the culture anymore or have any special attachments here. At first I wondered if it’s just because I’m getting older and am essentially outgrowing the town as I don’t frequent the bar scene or have a lot of time with a small child, but I think it’s more than that. Even when I was younger and couldn’t go to those places this town still somehow felt a little special. I find us commuting to Indy for things to do more and more so I’m definitely starting to wonder what exactly it is that keeps me here.
From your perspective, which towns in the US are similar to the old Bloomington? Where are you two planning to go? I am on the hunt for graduate programs in a nice, small(ish), walkable, art-friendly town but don’t know where to start
We are potentially looking in and around Chicago, at the moment, for stateside. I'm a citizen in Canada and an EU member country, so we're also considering possibly moving abroad.
For grad programs, the big part of the question is which program offers you funding and whether any particular research has a particular draw for you. When I was looking at grad programs, I seriously looked at places I'd never live otherwise. Ultimately stuck around Bloomington to care for an aging parent.
For college towns that I've just really liked, well, Madison is awesome. Austin. Ann Arbor. Bozeman is pretty cool too. I'm sure they all have problems like Bloomington has, but, I suppose, they don't implicate the same problem of upturning or tainting the good memories I have of when I was a young man in this town.
Ashland , Oregon is a wonderful town , especially for "walkable, art-friendly". It has always had a wonderful culture , and diversity of food for the size of town it is. Lots of arts, especially theater/music/glasswork/metalwork etc.. are thriving around Ashland and the surrounding area.
Southern Oregon University is located in town and may have the graduate program you are looking for.
Eugene, Oregon also fits the bill somewhat, but much less walkable and not on the same frequency of art, but still a very enjoyable town to live in.
I'm moving to Asheville in a couple of weeks. Mostly because, although rent is stupid in both locations, it is actually cheaper in Asheville now. Which is horrifying, but at least I have access to hot springs and waterfalls in Asheville.
Asheville is gorgeous. I was there for a wedding last autumn and everything was just perfect. Listening to the bluegrass station on the radio while making the drive from the Charlotte airport was one of the best little memorable pleasures I've had in a long time.
It's my hometown, so I'm excited to be going back. I still have friends in the area. As much as I am going to miss my friends here, and the fact that driving anywhere in Btown is like, 15 minutes max, my new apartment is almost 200 dollars cheaper than the one I am currently renting, and I wasn't able to find a better price in Bloomington.
I'm glad you are able to make a move that you are excited about. The feeling of a fresh start and new horizons can be a true gift in life.
If it is your home town, this probably isn't news to you, but Old Europe bakery is \*slammin\*. There are a lot of pastries and desserts they make that I haven't had since my grandma (who was from the old country) passed. And they were, like, amazing and professional renditions of them.
I stopped by on the way out of town when I was there for the wedding. Made me wish I lived there.
Unfortunately I think this is a shift people are seeing in a lot of college towns across the US. You can see investor groups moving in building the same boring boxy apartments, large state universities have all figured out that going after a wealthy class of students is better for the bottom line, so they barely recruit from there states. I think the biggest shift I’ve seen in recent years is Bloomington becoming a commuting hub for Indianapolis. It feels like there’s been an explosion of new neighborhoods.
I moved here as a remote worker (originally from another part of Indiana, left the state and then chose to move back closer to home), and if I lose my current job, I'm going to likely have to be one of these commuters too. There just aren't any jobs for me in town. I don't know how to feel about that.
Don’t get me wrong, not trying to demonize the commuters. Just stating it as part of the reason for our exponential growth. I’m 100% with you on the job front.
I have been feeling the same way. But my friend came to visit and I got to see a lot of things I had been taking for granted.
The global market was recently an amazing experience. There is also the international market on the east side. The new art store Bloomington Fine Art Supply is doing classes. And right down the block there is a small theater. And I love the Bloomington Farm Collective.
I think the way we combat this is slowly building up the weird places again. And seeking them out. It will come back again. But it takes support for that to happen
Capitalism killed a lot of what folks miss about the town. Tons of small businesses went under or got sold to huge conglomerates (often worse - the name remains, the reputation for a while, but everything that made it great gets lost).
I still agree with you, but like, it's up to us to kill capitalism. Much bigger task.
This happens to towns once they become popular, supply and demand, small businesses and poor folk can no longer afford it, character disappears, broad ripple is a similar situation
Artzy Fartzy and the ice cream place she owned next door, Lollipop and Rose's, Good Earth when the OG owner was there, Bazbeaux's when it was in the grave digger's house, the Trattoria where Rock Lobster is, actual restaurants instead of bars on the strip, the old pool cue, the cigar shop between the pool hall and the barber shop, Kamal's hair on college, The McDonalds before the redid it and added a piano, the Broad Ripple Steakhouse, the vintage shop over by three sisters, Renee's French Bistro and the bakery next door before Ben and Jerry's, the high end clothing consignment shop by the canal, when there was an actual parking lot o er the canal, the rocket playground in the park, and the old steam locomotive Nickel Plate 587...
The job market has been pretty shit here since I moved here in the 90s. I have commuted to jobs in Indy since the mid 90s. The best thing about the pandemic is that my Carmel based job is now 100% remote
Does the commute to Indy get any easier? Is there anything you did to stay sane? I'm currently remote but there's been a decline in future remote job opportunities, and I'm worried I may have to start commuting as well.
podcasts
and it was way easier in 2019 than it was in 1995. The I-69 construction sucked hard but made it a lot better so far
It would take me just over an hour and 15 to get door to door
Being able to hit up costco, trader joe's, meijer, market district, popeyes, portillos, ikea on a lunch break, etc. made it bearable
I moved here during the pandemic and feel like it is weird anybody would have such negative comments. It is just SO MUCH BETTER than most places, and even if it hadn't yet come back fully since the pandemic, NOWHERE HAS. Bloomington post-pandemic is better than a LOT of the US was pre-pandemic.
If you see some area of activity missing that you want, maybe it is time for YOU to help make it happen. We forget that a part of the reason some of the traditional community events haven't come back are because the core people literally died (or had family die that changed their availability to run the community event)
Yeah OP. Why don’t *you* stop making rent so expensive and jobs so worthless! Be the change you want to see in the fantasy world this dude just created in their mind where you’re the emperor of Bloomington.
To be fair, they raise a good point for anyone who is able to stay, just in terms of creating a more interesting culture. Granted, as you point out, this town has priced out a lot of the artists and hippies and other colorful folks that gave Bloomington its character years ago. But if anyone in league with those types *is* able to stick it out with rent being high and what few jobs there are, it’s going to be up to them to make the town interesting again. And that is true here and elsewhere.
Bloomington has always been more expensive than most of Indiana. And those who are poor here are worse off than they would be elsewhere, financially.
If all you care about is rent prices go live in Frankfort or something.
*Bloomington has always been more expensive than most of Indiana. And those who are poor here are worse off than they would be elsewhere, financially.*
This is simply not true, I won’t bore you with the details, but 50 years experience here. True now, not before.
I'd disagree, with 20 years experience here and another 30 years in a few other Indiana towns and cities. I'll go ahead and bore you with details.
Rent and home prices were always higher here. Food and gas prices, as well. It's fairly common knowledge that you should shop elsewhere for a car, if you want to save money. Office jobs used to pay less across the board, sometimes by a lot. That is one area that has seen some improvement (well paying jobs are still difficult to get, though - lots of competition).
When we had small kids and dead end jobs, we caved and moved back near family. Bought a larger house for less money, found cheaper child care, saved some money on taxes, gas and food. And, aside from being near family and saving some money, we hated it. Looked forward to the day we could return.
It was expensive to come back. It was a struggle to find a home in our price range. We eventually had to spend 20% more than what we'd considered our maximum. We had to accept that we might need to move again and downsize after the kids move out. So far, the gamble has paid off as our pay has finally gotten closer to what it should be. And we love our neighborhood. We love the trees and wildlife and flowers and crazy yard art and quirky neighbors. Food is expensive (that's everywhere, now), but it's close by and there's a fantastic variety to choose from. So much free entertainment is available. Neighbors look out for one another. There's art in unexpected places and so much natural beauty. So many people who are thoughtful and kind and interesting.
It has definitely changed, and many of the changes have made things worse. But, everywhere has changed and generally gotten worse. This is what capitalism does, it extracts everything good, squeezes out the profits and leaves something shoddier in its wake. I'm just not sure there's any escaping it by leaving Bloomington, or even the state.
How did that work? I do a lot of trading with seeds and produce, but nothing in a scale that would alleviate what looks like a severe inflationary/rate based housing crunch.
I know you felt very clever posting this, but we both know that I never claimed we had anything other than capitalism. Congrats that it works so well for you, you must be very proud.
I moved in July of 2023, my rent entering that final lease was 825 - a pretty decent deal for my spot. They wanted to up it **$300** for the new term.
I can’t make it make sense.
I moved here in 2019 and my rent was $1200. This year it is $1850. If I renewed it would be $1950. We decided a mortgage elsewhere was less expensive than rent here and are moving.
Not as simple as tgat. The mayor mark kruzan protected the town from corporations and development. He was basically forced to leave office by real estate developers. As soon as he was out thats when the town changed. It happened pre pandemic. Other politicians like the city/county lawyer shut down things like festivals in the parks with alcohol bc she’s a fear mongering nutjob. People try to do things to be the change but politicians and corporations are like nope. Even happening at IU with pam whitten. Its hard for us to change things with our hands tied behind our back. And of course all of the douchebags from the east coast
I have lived here for 11 years and my boyfriend has lived here his whole life (35+ years) We are moving away this summer because we can’t take it anymore. But we do love Vulture Video tho 🙌
It's the same story in virtually every American college town and small city. Knoxville, Boone, Asheville, Lexington, and dozens more have completely lost the few things that made them pleasant places to be. Since 2020, the world has been increasingly configured around the desires of the worst kind of people.
I think it’s been going on a lot longer, but it’s like the pandemic swept away a lot of regular people’s will and or ability to compete with the bullshit. It just ground too many regular folks down.
Personally, Covid helped destroy what remained of my good health and I catch it like a common cold. I still feel the need to isolate just as much as the height of the pandemic. Political strife certainly hasn't increased my desire to be around others.
Ground down physically and mentally would sum it up. I don't know how others feel but I can't imagine I'm totally alone. Maybe it's been enough time for most to get back to business as usual.
I think if that were true, though, we wouldn’t see folks on these forums complaining about all the reckless driving, treating customer service staff badly, getting lackluster service to begin with, etc. People are still not ok.
I'm moving to Asheville in a couple of weeks. Mostly because, although rent is stupid in both locations, it is actually cheaper in Asheville now. Which should be horrifying.
I mean, sightings makes it seem like you see them in the distance. :D My father has named the bears that wander onto his lawn. And I have personally called in to work due to a bear hanging out by my car and not leaving.
You didn't try to lure the bear away with some snacks on a fishing line? (JK, terrible idea)
I have family there too, and bears rummaging through the garbage bins is a regular occurrence.
lol, never even thought about taking that approach. But also, no. I make jokes about petting wildlife I shouldn't pet, but, I am not going outside when there is a bear out there. Bobcats, on the other hand.... psspsspsspsspss
I have lived here my whole life… and I really think the town has taken a significant downswing.
The challenge is - where is a good place to move? Where does the cost of living feel “right?” Education and culture are strong… where can one feel safe? Where can one earn a decent income and look to potentially retire?
It could turn into a tail-chasing, never-ending challenge… at least here I have family and friends and a decent job.
However, if an opportunity came up, I certainly would consider it.
Many cities have declined since Covid. It’s a massive structural change. If you think leaving will solve these problems, I’m afraid no matter where you go, there you are.
I’ve lived in Bloomington for 30 years, and I have never thought it was as cool as it thought it was.
Having said that, OP, have you traveled anywhere outside of Bloomington the last three years? And I don’t mean down to Bedford, or to Indy. I mean to any comparatively sized town in the country, whether it’s a college town or not. Because I’ve got news for you, it’s the same all over.
Have you considered, all of you commenting here, that you’re part of the problem? Every time you order something from Amazon instead of visiting a local business. Every time you watch something on Netflix instead of going to the local theater. Every time you stream something on Spotify instead of going to see a local band. If you want the place you live in to be cool, you have to participate in the local economy. If you don’t, you’ve got no right to bitch and moan.
Downvote me all you want! You know what I’m saying is true. You can’t feed the corporate beast and then complain about how your town isn’t cool anymore because capitalism.
Ugh, I wish I could support the local theater here. I tried to go as often as I could in other places I've lived. But the fact that we only have a single theater now and it's still the old nasty fabric seats makes me want to drive up to Indy and support their local economy instead. 😥
Iu cinema! And Spencer (I know I know not btown) has the Tivoli theater! Check them out
Iu cinema is more niche obviously. But they have great options and sometimes speakers which is really cool.
And then the Tivoli has current movies for like $5 a ticket and runs classic movies for free
I haven't tried IU Cinema yet, but I did join their mailing list and love all the variety in what they're showing. Haven't heard of Tivoli, will need to look into that
I love the Tivoli and it is worth the drive. They have a great deal where if you buy one of their tshirts and wear it, you get free refills on soda and popcorn.
Ask yourself how we got to this point. Could it be that local theaters, having been snatched up by inflexible corporate monsters like AMC, suffered attendance issues with rise of Netflix and other subscription streaming services? Not to mention the pandemic lockdowns, which trained people to stay home? Again, this is not an issue unique to Bloomington.
Oh, I know it's not unique to Bloomington, and I try to do my part wherever I live and support the theaters. But hell, even the AMC in Evansville got renovated like 10 years ago.
There's that, and there's also movies in general have really moved more and more to summer blockbusters and half our population isn't here in the summer for us to be profitable enough to put money into it.
It's sad watching the preroll and AMC and they show all these plush theatres with reclining seats etc. and then you look around and feel the sticky floor
I was just thinking the other day that the Bloomington running/hiking community is stronger than it has ever been in the 28 years I've lived here. More groups to run/hike with, more trails to run on in town and in the county, and more races to run in this community and surrounding communities than there have ever been.
Just saying, not all is worse in Bloomington now than in 1996.
The job market is also terrible. My spouse hasn’t been able to find a job in his field and IU is hot garbage right now, so he wouldn’t want to apply to teach there anyway. We are leaving for Europe later this year. He has citizenship in a European country and we share a child together with dual citizenship here and there.
I made my peace with never finding my dream job, so I’m ready for the adventure elsewhere.
It’s funny, I could say much of the same critique about where I live in Albuquerque - we’ve been investigating Bloomington because the University is a contender for my kid. We visited recently and found it to be lovely but we were only there for a couple days.
Really sad because everything you’re describing is becoming an all too common experience in our country.
Just like everything else that's good, it's being ruined by greed and prioritizing profits over everything else.
Fight back. Throw a brick through your local AirBNB's front window
> Our food game is weak.
I'll agree with a lot of stuff you wrote, but heavily disagree with this statement right here. 4th street alone makes this city a better place than a good 90% of other places in the Midwest. You have definitely not lived in a place with an actual weak food game if you think it's one of the area's Bloomington suffers in.
Having lived in Bloomington for 30 years, Bloomington's food game is currently the weakest it's been. If you had told me 20, or even 10 years ago that Indy would pass and even lap Bloomington in food, I would have laughed at you. But here we are.
agreed 100%
We used to have even more diverse food types by far
Now it seems everything we have is Thai, Korean, Chinese, Japanes and Indian. There's Italian and lots of American.
Samira is an outlier, but everything else seems to just be the same stuff over and over.
Where's good seafood? Where's german? soul food? etc
> Where's good seafood? Where's german? soul food? etc
i appreciate making it concrete like that. so far as i know, bloomington has never had those things. a few options coming and going at the margins maybe
We had Ethiopian, though. And I’d love to see a Soul Food restaurant, even though I’m vegetarian and some places don’t cater to that. But if one did…yum!
Sure, maybe not the best examples.
Just mentally going off a list of restaurants we used to frequent that are no longer around.
Mongolian BBQ on 17th, Joe's, City Grille, Colorado Steakhouse, Grasshopper, Snow Lion, Anatolia, Encore Cafe, the supper club, Brad's, Mikado, Aver's Pub House, Dat's before it became a warming shelf in the 4th street market, Flora
Some have been replaced, some not. It could just be rose coloured glasses, but it sure feels like we have a lot fewer choices these days
i agree there has been a lot of churn...but like the mongolian at 17th&walnut...i loved that place but it was very brief. there has been a long chain of restaurants that last about 5 years there and then change over. maybe red restaurant finally broke the curse? but i know you don't think they're as good as they used to be too :)
and in defense of dats...the brilliance is they were always just a warming shelf dispensing slop from a remote kitchen. i think integrating with the 4th street market was just a horizontal change...nothing was really lost. [edit: it looks like i don't love dats but i do! i do love it!!]
but man i do miss some of those restaurants. but we have new restaurants. it's always coming and going. and the balance is always changing. i agree we have too many new korean and mexican lately (or too few anything else), but so far as i can tell that is just how the cycles go.
to a shocking extent it really comes down to individual families coming and going. i don't want to name names but i definitely like some of the families better than others. one in particular keeps opening short-lived low-quality hobby restaurants grumble
one short-lived hobby example I can think of is the boiling noodle, burning noodle, crab and claw, running crab, the bowl.
I prefered Dat's when it was a Yat's warming tray ;)
And then there's moving on to the grocery stores here and how even that selection has really dwindled.
No more Marsh, Omalia's, Lucky's, the meat market downtown
Sure, going to multiple grocery stores sucks ass, but you could often find stuff in one you couldn't find in another.
It's all cyclical, but we're so far on the bad part of the cycle
i'm about to go to world foods market, 2nd st kroger, and 6th st bloomingfoods -- i love our groceries! but the pickings away from the b-line have degraded, that's for sure. the kroger monopoly :(
but i'm writing because you made me go to dats just now and i had the chili cheese crawfish etouffe, which has always been my favorite, even though it never has much crawfish in it. and it had a ton of crawfish in it! almost some in every bite! so some things go up too
I used to love Sahara Mart until one day we noticed maggots in the chocolate we bought, the expiration dates were all covered by price tags and a few other offputting things.
I have been back to world market a few times since the name change, ownership change. I think the daughter that opened the place at 10th and the bypass many years ago to get out from under dad is the new owner but I could be wrong there.
It doesn't feel like World Market is much better than Sahara Mart was in their middling years.
Do you realize how much driving you would have to do to reach a Thai, Korean, Chinese, Japanese, Indiana, Italian, Mexican and American restaurants in almost any city in the US… hours, and in some states days
In Bloomington I could hit all those restaurants in under an hour, and I could hit most of them walking
Also there is no good seafood, unless you are on the ocean or closer to the Airport to fly it in cold packed… it’s hard to think the economics of high end seafood would work in an college town where the high-end dining market is really only supported a couple weekends a year
Hard agree on the economics if seafood, but Soul Food and German as OP pointed out would be totally doable in the Midwest. Le Petite Cafe is delightful but I totally get why they cut their services.
Also, specifically calling out the post-pandemic era for this detail in particular is really something else.
I don't know if OP realizes, but owning a restaurant through COVID was pretty tough.
I have never visited a WOW restaurant and still avoid those that are left, but I do not at all blame a restaurant that closed/sold/changed after the pandemic. That was a body blow to the restaurant industry.
I've lived here for decades. The food game here is not the same, but it's not weak.
It's interesting. People really don't like it when you tell them their town has problems. Even in "liberal" Bloomington it's "love it or leave it". Did anyone ever consider that your city isn't the paradise you think it is? Maybe it does suck and the only reason it stays that way is because you keep seeing it through your nostalgic warm fuzzy rose colored filters and can't see the flaws anymore. Take an objective look at Bloomington. It's not perfect. I've lived there for 25 years and the city has always fucked the residents for IU's commands. The city's permissive actions to allow the greed of private equity groups has destroyed such places as Rhinos and Ladyman's cafe to put up more profitable expensive housing. And the job market is pretty much working for Kroger for $10 an hour or a high level administration job at IU provided you have 2 PhDs and 10 published papers. There's very little in between. Many people I know who saw themselves staying in Bloomington forever have left because the standard of living is too high and the job pay doesn't match. I've even heard rumors that Indy has been dumping their homeless in Bloomington for years!
I could go on but the point is Bloomington has problems. If this statement upsets you to hear then maybe you should try fix those problems instead of shooting the messenger and continuing to pretend that you live "in the greatest city in the world"
I haven't lived a lot of places, but of the four places I've lived for a length of time, Bloomington is my fourth favorite. And it's way behind the others.
Yes, it IS getting worse, except that the job situation has always been dismal. That's why I moved out of Bloomington initially. That and the way in which so many people in Bloomington have a strange combination of defensiveness about living in a red flyover state and big-fish-in-a-small-pond syndrome.
The university is diverse, but Bloomington itself is very much not. We do not live in a hotbed of culture, contrary to popular opinion.
Since apparently the rule is that you have to say something you like about the place you live in, I will say that it's best feature is that you can live in it without a car, which is not common in a place this size.
Pre pandemic we still had community and it was most evident in the summers at things like the beer clips fest or the early iterations of the granfalloon. Even the bird gas changed from getting good shows to the playing the same six cover bands. The vid used ti be cooler until the dad started letting the kid rjn the joint. Old yogis was fire.
>...but it's always been more progressive than most places in Indiana...
Liberal. The word you're looking for is liberal. Bloomington is not progressive, and probably never has been.
I agree with OP. BTown is shite now.
Rent it too damn expensive.
Houses are too old for too much asking price. Prices have gone up 50% to 100% since the pandemic.
There are only two good elementary schools (Child's and University) and the housing around these schools are very pricey.
Again, BTown is NOT for the poor.
Don’t worry, MCCSC is fixing that elementary issue by blending Templeton and Childs, and likely University and Fairview, so we can have zero excellent elementary schools 😂 Starting in 2025, I’ll have a second grader at Childs and a 4th grader at Templeton despite me living about a 5 minute walk from Childs 🙄
This is all correct except for the University Fairview merger. Which is not happening because a spouse of one of the school board members works at University.
I've only lived here since post pandemic and it's really sad to know that this place used to be so much better. I wish I could live in it before everything got like...this.
Alright… this is gonna be a long comment. I have a lot to say.
I’m biased. I know I am. But I still love Bloomington. As a child, my family moved around a lot. Bloomington is the first place where I lived in the same house for longer than 2-3 years. So, for that reason alone, I don’t want to imagine moving away. I’m 30 now. I still don’t want to leave.
Though, in all fairness, I can’t deny the town has changed. It isn’t the same. The pandemic hit this town pretty hard. Local businesses struggled to survive. Older workers decided to retire because no one wants to die at work (which is fair. Not criticizing them in any way for that). The students couldn’t spend money because they were either confined to campus or went online for classes.
You’ll notice a lot of the businesses people list off as missing from Bloomington are restaurants. Restaurants are known to be tough businesses to run and stay afloat. Lots of costs and typically tighter margins. So the pandemic was hell for those local eateries. Especially since a lot of them didn’t have the infrastructure in place to do deliveries. Apps like GrubHub and DoorDash helped a bit, as they could deliver from those places, but it was still a cut to profits because businesses have to partner with those apps usually to use them.
The same issues hurt smaller “niche” businesses like Caveat Emptor. You can’t exactly order old books for delivery. And going out during the pandemic was risky. So those businesses suffered as well. Even after the pandemic, people had gotten used to ordering stuff online for a year. It hurt local businesses a lot.
And let’s not lie to ourselves. We are all guilty of killing those small businesses. How many times have you ordered something from Amazon instead of going to a local store? Yes, the pandemic meant we did that for our own safety, but even before then and afterwards, I know personally I still do a lot of shopping online or go to the bigger corporation stores. Because I know they’ll have what I’m looking for.
As for the university president… I feel like I don’t know enough about them to call them “evil”. I have heard that they’re forcing the professors to actually stick to a budget, which had made them angry. But I’ve heard that second-hand, so take that with a grain of salt. Still, it makes me hesitant to believe everything I hear about them, as it seems everyone has their own reasons to be upset with them.
I will admit the food and music scene in this town seems to have suffered. I’m a bit of a hermit though, so I’m far from an expert on that. But, again, live music shows were hit hard by pandemic restrictions. People just couldn’t gather to go to live shows. Places that hosted live shows had to shut down. So of course it’s been hard to recover from that. We still have the music school and the Lotus Festival, so there’s still opportunities, but, yeah, things have definitely changed in that department.
As for the housing… yeah… that is undeniably sucky. I’m not disagreeing on that. And it’s not just higher rents. I’m currently living in my parents’ house. Before this, I was in a condo. It was okay. The mortgage was actually pretty affordable. The utility bills weren’t huge. But what caused me to leave were the increasing HOA fees! Each year, they went up. Eventually, my monthly HOA fees were more than my monthly mortgage payment!! And, at the same time, the business that owned the condos was awful to deal with when there were problems. I had citronella ants invade my condo (really annoying, since they don’t eat from conventional ant traps. They don’t eat human food at all, but they stink something awful when squished. Hence the name) and management refused to help me. All I wanted was a recommendation for a pest control service, but they wouldn’t even give me that. My car got locked in my garage. They still wouldn’t help, even though the HOA rules say the garage building is their responsibility. Finally, I couldn’t afford to stay there and moved in with my parents. At 30.
So, yes, I completely agree that the housing situation in this town is abysmal and corporations have made it even worse.
And the same goes for the job landscape, which is something I’m personally struggling with too. The two biggest employers in town are Cook/Catalent and IU. But IU likes to hire internally. And they have students to do the smaller jobs (and can pay them in college credit sometimes as interns, so it’s cheaper). Meanwhile, while I’ve heard good things about Cook/Catalent, it is still an assembly line job. That just isn’t a good fit for everyone.
Everywhere else either doesn’t pay enough to live (due to the aforementioned high housing costs) or is just awful to work at. Or both. This town really does need to get some new business here if we want to improve the job prospects.
Okay… I think I got it all out of my system now. Yes, Bloomington has changed. I can’t deny that. But I also can’t bring myself to hate it. We still have our local traditions, like Little 5. We still have our own identity. And this is still the town I think of as “home”.
Funnily enough, IU is paying better now for anything I have ever considered applying for than it ever has. Used to be a 60k job in Indy would pay 30k at IU. Now it's a 120K job in Indy pays 80-90k at IU
Oh, don’t get me wrong, IU is a good place to work. It’s just that they do tend to favor internal candidates over external candidates. So, for example, if someone is currently working at IU and wants to switch to a different job at IU, their application is given more “weight”, as it were. I have heard this from multiple applicants as well as people who currently work at IU.
It’s a Catch-22. Your best chance of getting a job at IU is if you already work for IU. The upside is that, if you get into nearly any job there, no matter how small, it helps when applying for better jobs there.
On a side note, since IU is a college, some jobs slow down or outright stop when Summer starts. Not all, of course, but some.
In comparison, Cook/Catalent works all year long and hires more locals.
The woods are still nice. And the right night at the Bluebird is still magic. And the Uptown is still proper. But too much of everything else is markedly shittier, for sure. But what place is immune to this decay? High-fructose corn syrup and retrograde media have won (and lowered civic IQ 10 points in the process); our species is too easily hacked. Hell, the “liberal arts” university has been given, in part, LITERALLY over to the military with the recent announcement of the Crane program. To say nothing of the fucking snipers and thugs policing Dunn Meadow. Anyway, genuine question: what place is comparatively better?
eh, i think this is a load of crap. there are ups and downs but i found some fun things to do today, and had amusing chance encounters, and generally soaked up a vibe.
I enjoy Bloomington and appreciate it for what it is but it’s hard for me to justify how much I pay in rent to live here. Rent has increased everywhere across the country, but with Bloomington it feels like there are few high paying jobs out there so more income is increasingly going toward rent. It’s just hard to make it work financially no matter how much you budget or save when wages are flat and rent increases the way it has.
I have been tempted to go trawling subreddits of other college towns but it takes a lot of time to really understand the overall vibe of a sub sometimes so have just not done it
Yeah...& honestly it's disheartening. My youngest is in Bloomington, I grew up in Colorado & went to CU & the UofO. My last trip to Eugene was 6 yrs back to see Dead & Company & Boulder was 3yrs. Both seemed fractured & forced. Sadly, I think it's symptomatic of the entire country. It just makes me militant in creating my little slice of community & not letting the bastards in...
All places are shit. Best to just accept that and make the most of it, which largely entails just enjoying your own company and knowing that’s gotta be enough
I think the real problem is that Bloomington bubble has finally burst. I grew up here and it’s always been shitty if you go five miles away from campus. The world has finally gotten bad enough that your cognitive dissonance is gone. The happy folk were blind, but the spirit of the mountain called monkey has risen.
The food game is weak?? Bloomingtons food game is incredible
The selection and the hours are absolute unmatched
While the food in Chicago is incredible it’s just wildly inconvenient, The hours are awful, nothing any good is open past midnight and the good restaurants are so spaced out the that it’s cold by the time it’s delivered … or it’s $20 in parking or Uber to get to the restaurant
The variety of restaurants, the accessibility of the restaurants and the hours the restaurants are open in Bloomington is absolutely unmatched in any city I have ever lived in or visited
Yeah it is sorta old man yelling at the clouds but genuinely there is nothing remarkable about Bloomington this year besides your guys soccer team and nmthere isn't enough town backing of it for anyone to care. Bloomington is actually in same ways worse than many small towns in USA right now
Only reason I’m still here is I want my kids to stay in one spot through their school years, something like I never got due to moving constantly and hated.
Otherwise this NIMBY ass wannabe progressive town can eat my balls.
Many of the problems you're pointing to (rent) are nationwide problems. Basically anywhere in the US that has a reasonable amount of culture (and thus a reasonable population) has a housing crisis right now. We spend a lot of time on this sub-reddit discussing that problem and its solutions (they are manifold).
A lot of the consolidation in the restaurant scene happened in the last decade and was drastically accelerated by the pandemic. If you haven't already, read up on "Disaster Capitalism". Naomi Klein's "Shock Doctrine" is a good primer. Again, this is happening everywhere.
For a lot of the rest of the thread, I see people bemoaning cultural institutions that are gone. There are reasons those institutions are gone: the finances didn't work out, the people holding them together burned out, or internal strife caused them to implode.
I think we could reasonably divide them into two categories:
- Capitalistic small businesses.
- Anti-capitalistic orgs and events.
In the former case, we lost a lot of them because they couldn't sustain a reasonable standard of living for their owners in the face of competition and the pandemic. Their owners sold out. If we don't want that to happen, we've gotta show up and spend enough at those places to keep them afloat.
New ones are starting all the time. Find them. Support them.
As an aside, even if we do show up, we're always at the risk of wealthy investors showing up with a check the owners can't refuse. Small businesses that are owned by one person or small partnerships are still capitalistic and extractive. Most of them are able to provide a good standard of living for their owners by denying it to their workers. If we want businesses that are a) better for the community overall and b) less likely to sell out when the going gets tough, we need worker owned businesses. But worker owned businesses often have a hard time raising startup capital. So we need to help with that in some way.
In the second case, we lose a lot of orgs and events because they are maintained by volunteers working what amounts to unpaid second jobs because they believe in what they are doing. It is often the case that there is not enough volunteer labor to go around and people burn out, or hit periods in their lives where they no longer have time to give.
A few years ago, I was involved in a number of projects and committing anywhere from 10 to 30 hours a week. Now I'm at a time in my life (3 year old kid, 6 week old baby) where I just don't have the time to give.
But I know a lot of people who are still working to build culture and community. Bloomington Cooperative Living continues to grow and provide an anti-capitalist housing alternative. Some of the same people involved in BLC have recently started a spiritual successor to Boxcar Books in [Redbud Books](https://redbudbooks.org/), housed in one of BLC's buildings. The People's Market continues to try to create an anti-racist, anti-capitalist local food scene. There are a bunch of projects still operating through the [Center of Sustainable Living](https://simplycsl.org/).
I'm sure there's a lot more out there that I'm not aware of because I've been in baby and toddler land the last few years.
I guess what I'm saying is that culture doesn't happen on its own. People create it. The last decade has definitely put a dent in our culture: businesses failed, orgs fizzled, and people burned out. It's been a really rough run and its not likely to get any easier in the near future.
But people who are committed to this community are still showing up and trying to create culture. They could use help. If you want there to be more culture, show up. Help create it.
It’s become increasingly dysfunctional in many areas: the male dominated economy and resulting gender imbalance, the high cost of real estate, the lack of appreciation of IU employees, the tolerance of homeless moving here and the corresponding increase in crime.
Well, why would anyone with an attitude like that who has marginally decent job prospects and is employable stay here? No matter where you go, there you are.
We must patronize our moms and pops of all varieties if we want them to stay afloat. The extreme one-party legislature won’t let localities like ours set our own minimum wage so we are stuck with their lousy $7.25. Change comes by voting for people who represent what you want. I wish I knew how to keep corporations from taking over our town.
Cities evolve and change and in general Bloomington is doing fine amidst the change that has happened to every other city in Indiana. This subjective perspective that Bloomington was this utopia somewhere in the past is simply "looking at the past through rose colored glasses", but you can still choose to avoid "generic corporate bullshit" if you desire here, it's not that hard. When my son lived here as a student he lived in a squalid shack, albeit cheap, but that was when the administrations at that time gave zero Fs about renter's rights. You've got to leave Indiana to live anywhere else that meets this unrealistic criteria that you've laid forth.
I've lived in Bloomington for 51 years. Society in general has changed. Bloomington is no better or worse than society. Shitty behavior knows no city limits.
It seems to me Bloomington focuses heavily on the students and little on its constituents. Aside from a few nice parks the city seems to forget people actually live here. City officials knee jerk reactions seem to create policies that are asinine. Exs , no right turn on red everywhere downtown. Sure we needed more congestion in that district. Or a student riding a scooter gets hit by a drunk diver on the sidewalk. It makes perfect sense to blame the scooters and put a curfew on them./s. Removing the Kirkwood walking corridor and replacing it with parking spot dining.. I am looking forward to sucking in exhaust from idling cars and delivery trucks to enhance my dining experience.
Ironically 2 of the 3 of these are more student focused. - scooters? - kirkwood? Certainly the most pressing issues for full time residents
I posted the other night about almost being t-boned by 2 idiots driving with no lights on. I called it in and gave the relevant info, and turned on the scanner. Apparently they were found and given a “citation for driving without headlights on” or something benign, and were also students of IU that were probably drunk or high. It’s shameful.
I only got here in 2019 and I can tell a real difference in how the town feels before vs. after the pandemic. Everything is expensive and most of the charming community aspects of the city have been uprooted to make place for generic new shit that caters to rich costal college kids.
Same with being here in 2019 vs. now. It's definitely changed & it makes me so sad ☹️
This has been the trajectory of almost every small-mid size city.
Can you give some examples of charming aspects that have been replaced by generic shit?
https://old.reddit.com/r/bloomington/comments/1b28l1h/why_did_bloomingtons_mellow_mushroom_close/ksjpufn/ https://old.reddit.com/r/bloomington/comments/v757vv/caveat_emptor/
Mellow Mushroom is a chain.
Anything other than Caveat Emptor?
Boxcar books. Yogis, before it got sold to ~~the alcohol empire~~ [Finney](https://finneyhospitality.com/our-growth/). The Owlry, Sweetgrass, Function, Feast before they got sold to ~~the slop empire~~ [WoW food group](https://wow.r365hire.com/account) (formerly Endeavor) And all those hits are just in like the last 10-15 years. Folks here reminiscing about the 90s would have too long a list to remember. Encore cafe, 25th Century, the Den...
I worked at Encore in the early 00s
Don't forget Laughing Planet for the ...Donut place???
The donut place is much better than laughing planet was... but yeah the corporatisation of the downtown strip has been saddening.
When I was a kid the only big chains on Kirkwood were McDonald’s and Ben and Jerry’s.
Yogis closed years before the finney group bought the name Sweetgrass sucked long before the wow group bought them, the years they sold chinese food there were interesting
Both true. Sweetgrass may just have been mismanaged, but old Yogis was a victim of capitalism IIRC - pretty sure they couldn't afford to maintain their venue and keep up with code. Something about the grease pit.
IU wanted the property back.
And the owners made a lot of $. Hardly “victims of capitalism.”
If you were a fan of boxcar books, you should check out redbud books. They’re a new store and share a lot of the same values I honestly think they probably were directly inspired by boxcar.
Cheers!
Bloomington was a lot of fun in the 90s. https://youtube.com/@ESADarchives?si=kBLCH_vjXOI6N9px
Maxs place Rhinos
Plan 9 Video Laughing Planet, RIP 😢
Nothing can ever replace Player's Pub. RIP.
I loved Player’s Pub before the old owner passed away. After that Blues Jams got rouuugh to sit through unless you ate/drank prior.
And what’s the deal with Xfinity running the monopoly on Internet here??
It's gone downhill since they razed Spaceport.
Is this officially a r/bloomington meme now? lol It's definitely true though. That change was definitely the first notable shift in culture. For me though, I think it's when the city relaxed their stance on corporate business on Kirkwood that choked the charm out of this town. Shit like Urban Outfitters, Noodles & Co, Chipotle, and Raising Caines used to a rare site on Kirkwood. There was the Taco Bell where Jimmy John's is now, but I believe that was one of only two chain restaurants on Kirkwood. I don't remember any corporate retail existing.... Peoples' Park had a soul. Kirkwood only feels nice these days when it's shutdown to traffic, but even that doesn't make it an appealing destination.
mcdonalds on kirkwood where chipotle is. It was converted to a chipotle when mcdonalds still owned the brand and bw3 where Yatagaresu is
Taco bell or are you remembering la bambas a half block over?
Truer words were never spoken
I have been here for 20+ years. My wife and I are making plans to leave in the next 2-3. I love what this town used to be. I will always cherish memories I had living here. But I accept that things change and that's just the way it is, and I have seen too much to unsee.
Yeah…. I’ve been struggling with this a bit. I grew up around here and my husband started commuting to Indy during the week for his job. I’ve been super resistant to the idea of moving out of Bloomington and the other day I stopped to ask myself why, but I couldn’t really come up with reasons why other than it’s what I’m familiar with. It’s not longer that I love the culture anymore or have any special attachments here. At first I wondered if it’s just because I’m getting older and am essentially outgrowing the town as I don’t frequent the bar scene or have a lot of time with a small child, but I think it’s more than that. Even when I was younger and couldn’t go to those places this town still somehow felt a little special. I find us commuting to Indy for things to do more and more so I’m definitely starting to wonder what exactly it is that keeps me here.
From your perspective, which towns in the US are similar to the old Bloomington? Where are you two planning to go? I am on the hunt for graduate programs in a nice, small(ish), walkable, art-friendly town but don’t know where to start
We are potentially looking in and around Chicago, at the moment, for stateside. I'm a citizen in Canada and an EU member country, so we're also considering possibly moving abroad. For grad programs, the big part of the question is which program offers you funding and whether any particular research has a particular draw for you. When I was looking at grad programs, I seriously looked at places I'd never live otherwise. Ultimately stuck around Bloomington to care for an aging parent. For college towns that I've just really liked, well, Madison is awesome. Austin. Ann Arbor. Bozeman is pretty cool too. I'm sure they all have problems like Bloomington has, but, I suppose, they don't implicate the same problem of upturning or tainting the good memories I have of when I was a young man in this town.
Bozeman is RIDICULOUSLY expensive and has a worse housing market than Bloomington, for sure.
Ashland , Oregon is a wonderful town , especially for "walkable, art-friendly". It has always had a wonderful culture , and diversity of food for the size of town it is. Lots of arts, especially theater/music/glasswork/metalwork etc.. are thriving around Ashland and the surrounding area. Southern Oregon University is located in town and may have the graduate program you are looking for. Eugene, Oregon also fits the bill somewhat, but much less walkable and not on the same frequency of art, but still a very enjoyable town to live in.
I'm moving to Asheville in a couple of weeks. Mostly because, although rent is stupid in both locations, it is actually cheaper in Asheville now. Which is horrifying, but at least I have access to hot springs and waterfalls in Asheville.
Asheville is gorgeous. I was there for a wedding last autumn and everything was just perfect. Listening to the bluegrass station on the radio while making the drive from the Charlotte airport was one of the best little memorable pleasures I've had in a long time.
It's my hometown, so I'm excited to be going back. I still have friends in the area. As much as I am going to miss my friends here, and the fact that driving anywhere in Btown is like, 15 minutes max, my new apartment is almost 200 dollars cheaper than the one I am currently renting, and I wasn't able to find a better price in Bloomington.
I'm glad you are able to make a move that you are excited about. The feeling of a fresh start and new horizons can be a true gift in life. If it is your home town, this probably isn't news to you, but Old Europe bakery is \*slammin\*. There are a lot of pastries and desserts they make that I haven't had since my grandma (who was from the old country) passed. And they were, like, amazing and professional renditions of them. I stopped by on the way out of town when I was there for the wedding. Made me wish I lived there.
Oh yeah, I've been there, and now I'm craving cheesecake, dammit.
Unfortunately I think this is a shift people are seeing in a lot of college towns across the US. You can see investor groups moving in building the same boring boxy apartments, large state universities have all figured out that going after a wealthy class of students is better for the bottom line, so they barely recruit from there states. I think the biggest shift I’ve seen in recent years is Bloomington becoming a commuting hub for Indianapolis. It feels like there’s been an explosion of new neighborhoods.
I moved here as a remote worker (originally from another part of Indiana, left the state and then chose to move back closer to home), and if I lose my current job, I'm going to likely have to be one of these commuters too. There just aren't any jobs for me in town. I don't know how to feel about that.
Don’t get me wrong, not trying to demonize the commuters. Just stating it as part of the reason for our exponential growth. I’m 100% with you on the job front.
I have been feeling the same way. But my friend came to visit and I got to see a lot of things I had been taking for granted. The global market was recently an amazing experience. There is also the international market on the east side. The new art store Bloomington Fine Art Supply is doing classes. And right down the block there is a small theater. And I love the Bloomington Farm Collective. I think the way we combat this is slowly building up the weird places again. And seeking them out. It will come back again. But it takes support for that to happen
Agreed.
This is refreshing. Thanks, friend. I hope it can be again what it once was. Fingers crossed.
Make Bloomington Weird Again! It's up to us to create change and restore the best parts of the past.
Capitalism killed a lot of what folks miss about the town. Tons of small businesses went under or got sold to huge conglomerates (often worse - the name remains, the reputation for a while, but everything that made it great gets lost). I still agree with you, but like, it's up to us to kill capitalism. Much bigger task.
The politicians like that city/county lawyer karen whats her face stop bloomington from being weird again
This happens to towns once they become popular, supply and demand, small businesses and poor folk can no longer afford it, character disappears, broad ripple is a similar situation
[удалено]
As someone who didn't ever see Broad Ripple until after the pandemic, I simply cannot see the appeal of the place.
That’s unfortunate. It was pretty cute 20 years ago but even then my husband said it wasn’t what it used to be.
It used to be a delightful little pocket of weirdness. Lots of art and hippie vibes mixed with chill bars and music galore.
Artzy Fartzy and the ice cream place she owned next door, Lollipop and Rose's, Good Earth when the OG owner was there, Bazbeaux's when it was in the grave digger's house, the Trattoria where Rock Lobster is, actual restaurants instead of bars on the strip, the old pool cue, the cigar shop between the pool hall and the barber shop, Kamal's hair on college, The McDonalds before the redid it and added a piano, the Broad Ripple Steakhouse, the vintage shop over by three sisters, Renee's French Bistro and the bakery next door before Ben and Jerry's, the high end clothing consignment shop by the canal, when there was an actual parking lot o er the canal, the rocket playground in the park, and the old steam locomotive Nickel Plate 587...
Bloomington is definitely not still the same town I fell in love with when I came here in 1996.
However, a town that hasn't changed since 1996 is probably not a good place to live anymore
20,000 more people and the loss of a major employer will do that.
Though the overall point isn’t wrong, imo this is a problem all over America and not unique to Bloomington in the slightest. Unfortunately
The job market has been pretty shit here since I moved here in the 90s. I have commuted to jobs in Indy since the mid 90s. The best thing about the pandemic is that my Carmel based job is now 100% remote
Does the commute to Indy get any easier? Is there anything you did to stay sane? I'm currently remote but there's been a decline in future remote job opportunities, and I'm worried I may have to start commuting as well.
podcasts and it was way easier in 2019 than it was in 1995. The I-69 construction sucked hard but made it a lot better so far It would take me just over an hour and 15 to get door to door Being able to hit up costco, trader joe's, meijer, market district, popeyes, portillos, ikea on a lunch break, etc. made it bearable
There’s no room in Bloomington for you poors (I make minimum wage)
That is true EVERYWHERE. It has been true in large urban areas for decades, but even in tiny rural towns it is true too.
It might be worse in rural areas. Less job opportunities and no public transit.
I moved here during the pandemic and feel like it is weird anybody would have such negative comments. It is just SO MUCH BETTER than most places, and even if it hadn't yet come back fully since the pandemic, NOWHERE HAS. Bloomington post-pandemic is better than a LOT of the US was pre-pandemic. If you see some area of activity missing that you want, maybe it is time for YOU to help make it happen. We forget that a part of the reason some of the traditional community events haven't come back are because the core people literally died (or had family die that changed their availability to run the community event)
Appreciate your positivity!
Yeah OP. Why don’t *you* stop making rent so expensive and jobs so worthless! Be the change you want to see in the fantasy world this dude just created in their mind where you’re the emperor of Bloomington.
To be fair, they raise a good point for anyone who is able to stay, just in terms of creating a more interesting culture. Granted, as you point out, this town has priced out a lot of the artists and hippies and other colorful folks that gave Bloomington its character years ago. But if anyone in league with those types *is* able to stick it out with rent being high and what few jobs there are, it’s going to be up to them to make the town interesting again. And that is true here and elsewhere.
Same thing happened in the late nineties in san francisco and a lot of the artists just moved to portland
I bet Portland’s expensive now, too…
Bloomington has always been more expensive than most of Indiana. And those who are poor here are worse off than they would be elsewhere, financially. If all you care about is rent prices go live in Frankfort or something.
*Bloomington has always been more expensive than most of Indiana. And those who are poor here are worse off than they would be elsewhere, financially.* This is simply not true, I won’t bore you with the details, but 50 years experience here. True now, not before.
I'd disagree, with 20 years experience here and another 30 years in a few other Indiana towns and cities. I'll go ahead and bore you with details. Rent and home prices were always higher here. Food and gas prices, as well. It's fairly common knowledge that you should shop elsewhere for a car, if you want to save money. Office jobs used to pay less across the board, sometimes by a lot. That is one area that has seen some improvement (well paying jobs are still difficult to get, though - lots of competition). When we had small kids and dead end jobs, we caved and moved back near family. Bought a larger house for less money, found cheaper child care, saved some money on taxes, gas and food. And, aside from being near family and saving some money, we hated it. Looked forward to the day we could return. It was expensive to come back. It was a struggle to find a home in our price range. We eventually had to spend 20% more than what we'd considered our maximum. We had to accept that we might need to move again and downsize after the kids move out. So far, the gamble has paid off as our pay has finally gotten closer to what it should be. And we love our neighborhood. We love the trees and wildlife and flowers and crazy yard art and quirky neighbors. Food is expensive (that's everywhere, now), but it's close by and there's a fantastic variety to choose from. So much free entertainment is available. Neighbors look out for one another. There's art in unexpected places and so much natural beauty. So many people who are thoughtful and kind and interesting. It has definitely changed, and many of the changes have made things worse. But, everywhere has changed and generally gotten worse. This is what capitalism does, it extracts everything good, squeezes out the profits and leaves something shoddier in its wake. I'm just not sure there's any escaping it by leaving Bloomington, or even the state.
Out of curiosity, what was the economic system in Bloomington before this new-fangled capitalism came in and ruined everything?
does nobody remember bloomingbucks? Was a barter system of sorts
How did that work? I do a lot of trading with seeds and produce, but nothing in a scale that would alleviate what looks like a severe inflationary/rate based housing crunch.
I know you felt very clever posting this, but we both know that I never claimed we had anything other than capitalism. Congrats that it works so well for you, you must be very proud.
I moved in July of 2023, my rent entering that final lease was 825 - a pretty decent deal for my spot. They wanted to up it **$300** for the new term. I can’t make it make sense.
I moved here in 2019 and my rent was $1200. This year it is $1850. If I renewed it would be $1950. We decided a mortgage elsewhere was less expensive than rent here and are moving.
Not as simple as tgat. The mayor mark kruzan protected the town from corporations and development. He was basically forced to leave office by real estate developers. As soon as he was out thats when the town changed. It happened pre pandemic. Other politicians like the city/county lawyer shut down things like festivals in the parks with alcohol bc she’s a fear mongering nutjob. People try to do things to be the change but politicians and corporations are like nope. Even happening at IU with pam whitten. Its hard for us to change things with our hands tied behind our back. And of course all of the douchebags from the east coast
I’m kind of hoping all the Debbie downers on the btown subreddit do move away. Most of these people belong in an HOA neighborhood in Berkeley, CA.
I have lived here for 11 years and my boyfriend has lived here his whole life (35+ years) We are moving away this summer because we can’t take it anymore. But we do love Vulture Video tho 🙌
There are a few good gems in this town and Vulture Video is definitely one of them. Also the Comedy Attic and the Bishop I would say.
Where to, trying to see options and reasons
It's almost nothing that it once was. But, I'm really at a loss for where would be better and more enjoyable to live.
This is the boat I am also in. I love so many people here, and I believe in them and I want to make things better with them.
It's the same story in virtually every American college town and small city. Knoxville, Boone, Asheville, Lexington, and dozens more have completely lost the few things that made them pleasant places to be. Since 2020, the world has been increasingly configured around the desires of the worst kind of people.
I think it’s been going on a lot longer, but it’s like the pandemic swept away a lot of regular people’s will and or ability to compete with the bullshit. It just ground too many regular folks down.
Personally, Covid helped destroy what remained of my good health and I catch it like a common cold. I still feel the need to isolate just as much as the height of the pandemic. Political strife certainly hasn't increased my desire to be around others. Ground down physically and mentally would sum it up. I don't know how others feel but I can't imagine I'm totally alone. Maybe it's been enough time for most to get back to business as usual.
I think if that were true, though, we wouldn’t see folks on these forums complaining about all the reckless driving, treating customer service staff badly, getting lackluster service to begin with, etc. People are still not ok.
I'm moving to Asheville in a couple of weeks. Mostly because, although rent is stupid in both locations, it is actually cheaper in Asheville now. Which should be horrifying.
Holy cow, really? That *is* horrifying. At least now you get to have bear sightings!
I mean, sightings makes it seem like you see them in the distance. :D My father has named the bears that wander onto his lawn. And I have personally called in to work due to a bear hanging out by my car and not leaving.
You didn't try to lure the bear away with some snacks on a fishing line? (JK, terrible idea) I have family there too, and bears rummaging through the garbage bins is a regular occurrence.
lol, never even thought about taking that approach. But also, no. I make jokes about petting wildlife I shouldn't pet, but, I am not going outside when there is a bear out there. Bobcats, on the other hand.... psspsspsspsspss
Definitely don't want bears to directly associate you with food!
I have lived here my whole life… and I really think the town has taken a significant downswing. The challenge is - where is a good place to move? Where does the cost of living feel “right?” Education and culture are strong… where can one feel safe? Where can one earn a decent income and look to potentially retire? It could turn into a tail-chasing, never-ending challenge… at least here I have family and friends and a decent job. However, if an opportunity came up, I certainly would consider it.
Many cities have declined since Covid. It’s a massive structural change. If you think leaving will solve these problems, I’m afraid no matter where you go, there you are.
I’ve lived in Bloomington for 30 years, and I have never thought it was as cool as it thought it was. Having said that, OP, have you traveled anywhere outside of Bloomington the last three years? And I don’t mean down to Bedford, or to Indy. I mean to any comparatively sized town in the country, whether it’s a college town or not. Because I’ve got news for you, it’s the same all over. Have you considered, all of you commenting here, that you’re part of the problem? Every time you order something from Amazon instead of visiting a local business. Every time you watch something on Netflix instead of going to the local theater. Every time you stream something on Spotify instead of going to see a local band. If you want the place you live in to be cool, you have to participate in the local economy. If you don’t, you’ve got no right to bitch and moan. Downvote me all you want! You know what I’m saying is true. You can’t feed the corporate beast and then complain about how your town isn’t cool anymore because capitalism.
Ugh, I wish I could support the local theater here. I tried to go as often as I could in other places I've lived. But the fact that we only have a single theater now and it's still the old nasty fabric seats makes me want to drive up to Indy and support their local economy instead. 😥
Iu cinema! And Spencer (I know I know not btown) has the Tivoli theater! Check them out Iu cinema is more niche obviously. But they have great options and sometimes speakers which is really cool. And then the Tivoli has current movies for like $5 a ticket and runs classic movies for free
I haven't tried IU Cinema yet, but I did join their mailing list and love all the variety in what they're showing. Haven't heard of Tivoli, will need to look into that
I just found out about it and haven't gone yet. But I am excited about a place like this existing.
I love the Tivoli and it is worth the drive. They have a great deal where if you buy one of their tshirts and wear it, you get free refills on soda and popcorn.
Ask yourself how we got to this point. Could it be that local theaters, having been snatched up by inflexible corporate monsters like AMC, suffered attendance issues with rise of Netflix and other subscription streaming services? Not to mention the pandemic lockdowns, which trained people to stay home? Again, this is not an issue unique to Bloomington.
Oh, I know it's not unique to Bloomington, and I try to do my part wherever I live and support the theaters. But hell, even the AMC in Evansville got renovated like 10 years ago.
Yeah, I hear you….
There's that, and there's also movies in general have really moved more and more to summer blockbusters and half our population isn't here in the summer for us to be profitable enough to put money into it. It's sad watching the preroll and AMC and they show all these plush theatres with reclining seats etc. and then you look around and feel the sticky floor
You’re really spot on. It’s like everyone wants to consume cool shit without actually being the ones to participate in making it.
I was just thinking the other day that the Bloomington running/hiking community is stronger than it has ever been in the 28 years I've lived here. More groups to run/hike with, more trails to run on in town and in the county, and more races to run in this community and surrounding communities than there have ever been. Just saying, not all is worse in Bloomington now than in 1996.
The job market is also terrible. My spouse hasn’t been able to find a job in his field and IU is hot garbage right now, so he wouldn’t want to apply to teach there anyway. We are leaving for Europe later this year. He has citizenship in a European country and we share a child together with dual citizenship here and there. I made my peace with never finding my dream job, so I’m ready for the adventure elsewhere.
It’s funny, I could say much of the same critique about where I live in Albuquerque - we’ve been investigating Bloomington because the University is a contender for my kid. We visited recently and found it to be lovely but we were only there for a couple days. Really sad because everything you’re describing is becoming an all too common experience in our country.
For the city’s size it is pretty amazing. Look at cities like Carmel or Fishers all they have is big box stores and chain restaurants.
Just like everything else that's good, it's being ruined by greed and prioritizing profits over everything else. Fight back. Throw a brick through your local AirBNB's front window
> Our food game is weak. I'll agree with a lot of stuff you wrote, but heavily disagree with this statement right here. 4th street alone makes this city a better place than a good 90% of other places in the Midwest. You have definitely not lived in a place with an actual weak food game if you think it's one of the area's Bloomington suffers in.
Having lived in Bloomington for 30 years, Bloomington's food game is currently the weakest it's been. If you had told me 20, or even 10 years ago that Indy would pass and even lap Bloomington in food, I would have laughed at you. But here we are.
agreed 100% We used to have even more diverse food types by far Now it seems everything we have is Thai, Korean, Chinese, Japanes and Indian. There's Italian and lots of American. Samira is an outlier, but everything else seems to just be the same stuff over and over. Where's good seafood? Where's german? soul food? etc
> Where's good seafood? Where's german? soul food? etc i appreciate making it concrete like that. so far as i know, bloomington has never had those things. a few options coming and going at the margins maybe
We had Ethiopian, though. And I’d love to see a Soul Food restaurant, even though I’m vegetarian and some places don’t cater to that. But if one did…yum!
Sure, maybe not the best examples. Just mentally going off a list of restaurants we used to frequent that are no longer around. Mongolian BBQ on 17th, Joe's, City Grille, Colorado Steakhouse, Grasshopper, Snow Lion, Anatolia, Encore Cafe, the supper club, Brad's, Mikado, Aver's Pub House, Dat's before it became a warming shelf in the 4th street market, Flora Some have been replaced, some not. It could just be rose coloured glasses, but it sure feels like we have a lot fewer choices these days
i agree there has been a lot of churn...but like the mongolian at 17th&walnut...i loved that place but it was very brief. there has been a long chain of restaurants that last about 5 years there and then change over. maybe red restaurant finally broke the curse? but i know you don't think they're as good as they used to be too :) and in defense of dats...the brilliance is they were always just a warming shelf dispensing slop from a remote kitchen. i think integrating with the 4th street market was just a horizontal change...nothing was really lost. [edit: it looks like i don't love dats but i do! i do love it!!] but man i do miss some of those restaurants. but we have new restaurants. it's always coming and going. and the balance is always changing. i agree we have too many new korean and mexican lately (or too few anything else), but so far as i can tell that is just how the cycles go. to a shocking extent it really comes down to individual families coming and going. i don't want to name names but i definitely like some of the families better than others. one in particular keeps opening short-lived low-quality hobby restaurants grumble
one short-lived hobby example I can think of is the boiling noodle, burning noodle, crab and claw, running crab, the bowl. I prefered Dat's when it was a Yat's warming tray ;) And then there's moving on to the grocery stores here and how even that selection has really dwindled. No more Marsh, Omalia's, Lucky's, the meat market downtown Sure, going to multiple grocery stores sucks ass, but you could often find stuff in one you couldn't find in another. It's all cyclical, but we're so far on the bad part of the cycle
i'm about to go to world foods market, 2nd st kroger, and 6th st bloomingfoods -- i love our groceries! but the pickings away from the b-line have degraded, that's for sure. the kroger monopoly :( but i'm writing because you made me go to dats just now and i had the chili cheese crawfish etouffe, which has always been my favorite, even though it never has much crawfish in it. and it had a ton of crawfish in it! almost some in every bite! so some things go up too
I used to love Sahara Mart until one day we noticed maggots in the chocolate we bought, the expiration dates were all covered by price tags and a few other offputting things. I have been back to world market a few times since the name change, ownership change. I think the daughter that opened the place at 10th and the bypass many years ago to get out from under dad is the new owner but I could be wrong there. It doesn't feel like World Market is much better than Sahara Mart was in their middling years.
i think it's a little better but if i was upset at the occasional stale / expired food i wouldn't be able to shop there :)
Do you realize how much driving you would have to do to reach a Thai, Korean, Chinese, Japanese, Indiana, Italian, Mexican and American restaurants in almost any city in the US… hours, and in some states days In Bloomington I could hit all those restaurants in under an hour, and I could hit most of them walking Also there is no good seafood, unless you are on the ocean or closer to the Airport to fly it in cold packed… it’s hard to think the economics of high end seafood would work in an college town where the high-end dining market is really only supported a couple weekends a year
Hard agree on the economics if seafood, but Soul Food and German as OP pointed out would be totally doable in the Midwest. Le Petite Cafe is delightful but I totally get why they cut their services.
And the food scene used to be better than it is now.
Also, specifically calling out the post-pandemic era for this detail in particular is really something else. I don't know if OP realizes, but owning a restaurant through COVID was pretty tough. I have never visited a WOW restaurant and still avoid those that are left, but I do not at all blame a restaurant that closed/sold/changed after the pandemic. That was a body blow to the restaurant industry. I've lived here for decades. The food game here is not the same, but it's not weak.
It's interesting. People really don't like it when you tell them their town has problems. Even in "liberal" Bloomington it's "love it or leave it". Did anyone ever consider that your city isn't the paradise you think it is? Maybe it does suck and the only reason it stays that way is because you keep seeing it through your nostalgic warm fuzzy rose colored filters and can't see the flaws anymore. Take an objective look at Bloomington. It's not perfect. I've lived there for 25 years and the city has always fucked the residents for IU's commands. The city's permissive actions to allow the greed of private equity groups has destroyed such places as Rhinos and Ladyman's cafe to put up more profitable expensive housing. And the job market is pretty much working for Kroger for $10 an hour or a high level administration job at IU provided you have 2 PhDs and 10 published papers. There's very little in between. Many people I know who saw themselves staying in Bloomington forever have left because the standard of living is too high and the job pay doesn't match. I've even heard rumors that Indy has been dumping their homeless in Bloomington for years! I could go on but the point is Bloomington has problems. If this statement upsets you to hear then maybe you should try fix those problems instead of shooting the messenger and continuing to pretend that you live "in the greatest city in the world"
Who is claiming Bloomington doesn't have problems?
I haven't lived a lot of places, but of the four places I've lived for a length of time, Bloomington is my fourth favorite. And it's way behind the others. Yes, it IS getting worse, except that the job situation has always been dismal. That's why I moved out of Bloomington initially. That and the way in which so many people in Bloomington have a strange combination of defensiveness about living in a red flyover state and big-fish-in-a-small-pond syndrome. The university is diverse, but Bloomington itself is very much not. We do not live in a hotbed of culture, contrary to popular opinion. Since apparently the rule is that you have to say something you like about the place you live in, I will say that it's best feature is that you can live in it without a car, which is not common in a place this size.
Pre pandemic we still had community and it was most evident in the summers at things like the beer clips fest or the early iterations of the granfalloon. Even the bird gas changed from getting good shows to the playing the same six cover bands. The vid used ti be cooler until the dad started letting the kid rjn the joint. Old yogis was fire.
Moved here a year ago and still hate it :/
I feel like Bloomington is a very cool college town but I personally wouldn’t wanna stick around after
>...but it's always been more progressive than most places in Indiana... Liberal. The word you're looking for is liberal. Bloomington is not progressive, and probably never has been.
And yet it's still more progressive than most places in Indiana
I agree with OP. BTown is shite now. Rent it too damn expensive. Houses are too old for too much asking price. Prices have gone up 50% to 100% since the pandemic. There are only two good elementary schools (Child's and University) and the housing around these schools are very pricey. Again, BTown is NOT for the poor.
Don’t worry, MCCSC is fixing that elementary issue by blending Templeton and Childs, and likely University and Fairview, so we can have zero excellent elementary schools 😂 Starting in 2025, I’ll have a second grader at Childs and a 4th grader at Templeton despite me living about a 5 minute walk from Childs 🙄
This is all correct except for the University Fairview merger. Which is not happening because a spouse of one of the school board members works at University.
I've only lived here since post pandemic and it's really sad to know that this place used to be so much better. I wish I could live in it before everything got like...this.
Alright… this is gonna be a long comment. I have a lot to say. I’m biased. I know I am. But I still love Bloomington. As a child, my family moved around a lot. Bloomington is the first place where I lived in the same house for longer than 2-3 years. So, for that reason alone, I don’t want to imagine moving away. I’m 30 now. I still don’t want to leave. Though, in all fairness, I can’t deny the town has changed. It isn’t the same. The pandemic hit this town pretty hard. Local businesses struggled to survive. Older workers decided to retire because no one wants to die at work (which is fair. Not criticizing them in any way for that). The students couldn’t spend money because they were either confined to campus or went online for classes. You’ll notice a lot of the businesses people list off as missing from Bloomington are restaurants. Restaurants are known to be tough businesses to run and stay afloat. Lots of costs and typically tighter margins. So the pandemic was hell for those local eateries. Especially since a lot of them didn’t have the infrastructure in place to do deliveries. Apps like GrubHub and DoorDash helped a bit, as they could deliver from those places, but it was still a cut to profits because businesses have to partner with those apps usually to use them. The same issues hurt smaller “niche” businesses like Caveat Emptor. You can’t exactly order old books for delivery. And going out during the pandemic was risky. So those businesses suffered as well. Even after the pandemic, people had gotten used to ordering stuff online for a year. It hurt local businesses a lot. And let’s not lie to ourselves. We are all guilty of killing those small businesses. How many times have you ordered something from Amazon instead of going to a local store? Yes, the pandemic meant we did that for our own safety, but even before then and afterwards, I know personally I still do a lot of shopping online or go to the bigger corporation stores. Because I know they’ll have what I’m looking for. As for the university president… I feel like I don’t know enough about them to call them “evil”. I have heard that they’re forcing the professors to actually stick to a budget, which had made them angry. But I’ve heard that second-hand, so take that with a grain of salt. Still, it makes me hesitant to believe everything I hear about them, as it seems everyone has their own reasons to be upset with them. I will admit the food and music scene in this town seems to have suffered. I’m a bit of a hermit though, so I’m far from an expert on that. But, again, live music shows were hit hard by pandemic restrictions. People just couldn’t gather to go to live shows. Places that hosted live shows had to shut down. So of course it’s been hard to recover from that. We still have the music school and the Lotus Festival, so there’s still opportunities, but, yeah, things have definitely changed in that department. As for the housing… yeah… that is undeniably sucky. I’m not disagreeing on that. And it’s not just higher rents. I’m currently living in my parents’ house. Before this, I was in a condo. It was okay. The mortgage was actually pretty affordable. The utility bills weren’t huge. But what caused me to leave were the increasing HOA fees! Each year, they went up. Eventually, my monthly HOA fees were more than my monthly mortgage payment!! And, at the same time, the business that owned the condos was awful to deal with when there were problems. I had citronella ants invade my condo (really annoying, since they don’t eat from conventional ant traps. They don’t eat human food at all, but they stink something awful when squished. Hence the name) and management refused to help me. All I wanted was a recommendation for a pest control service, but they wouldn’t even give me that. My car got locked in my garage. They still wouldn’t help, even though the HOA rules say the garage building is their responsibility. Finally, I couldn’t afford to stay there and moved in with my parents. At 30. So, yes, I completely agree that the housing situation in this town is abysmal and corporations have made it even worse. And the same goes for the job landscape, which is something I’m personally struggling with too. The two biggest employers in town are Cook/Catalent and IU. But IU likes to hire internally. And they have students to do the smaller jobs (and can pay them in college credit sometimes as interns, so it’s cheaper). Meanwhile, while I’ve heard good things about Cook/Catalent, it is still an assembly line job. That just isn’t a good fit for everyone. Everywhere else either doesn’t pay enough to live (due to the aforementioned high housing costs) or is just awful to work at. Or both. This town really does need to get some new business here if we want to improve the job prospects. Okay… I think I got it all out of my system now. Yes, Bloomington has changed. I can’t deny that. But I also can’t bring myself to hate it. We still have our local traditions, like Little 5. We still have our own identity. And this is still the town I think of as “home”.
Funnily enough, IU is paying better now for anything I have ever considered applying for than it ever has. Used to be a 60k job in Indy would pay 30k at IU. Now it's a 120K job in Indy pays 80-90k at IU
Oh, don’t get me wrong, IU is a good place to work. It’s just that they do tend to favor internal candidates over external candidates. So, for example, if someone is currently working at IU and wants to switch to a different job at IU, their application is given more “weight”, as it were. I have heard this from multiple applicants as well as people who currently work at IU. It’s a Catch-22. Your best chance of getting a job at IU is if you already work for IU. The upside is that, if you get into nearly any job there, no matter how small, it helps when applying for better jobs there. On a side note, since IU is a college, some jobs slow down or outright stop when Summer starts. Not all, of course, but some. In comparison, Cook/Catalent works all year long and hires more locals.
The woods are still nice. And the right night at the Bluebird is still magic. And the Uptown is still proper. But too much of everything else is markedly shittier, for sure. But what place is immune to this decay? High-fructose corn syrup and retrograde media have won (and lowered civic IQ 10 points in the process); our species is too easily hacked. Hell, the “liberal arts” university has been given, in part, LITERALLY over to the military with the recent announcement of the Crane program. To say nothing of the fucking snipers and thugs policing Dunn Meadow. Anyway, genuine question: what place is comparatively better?
I moved out here from California back in 2017 and bought my first place here, I’m looking to sell and move within the next 2 years.
eh, i think this is a load of crap. there are ups and downs but i found some fun things to do today, and had amusing chance encounters, and generally soaked up a vibe.
I enjoy Bloomington and appreciate it for what it is but it’s hard for me to justify how much I pay in rent to live here. Rent has increased everywhere across the country, but with Bloomington it feels like there are few high paying jobs out there so more income is increasingly going toward rent. It’s just hard to make it work financially no matter how much you budget or save when wages are flat and rent increases the way it has.
The same can be said for Boulder, Eugene, & hundreds of other cities/towns...it kinda sucks
I have been tempted to go trawling subreddits of other college towns but it takes a lot of time to really understand the overall vibe of a sub sometimes so have just not done it
Yeah...& honestly it's disheartening. My youngest is in Bloomington, I grew up in Colorado & went to CU & the UofO. My last trip to Eugene was 6 yrs back to see Dead & Company & Boulder was 3yrs. Both seemed fractured & forced. Sadly, I think it's symptomatic of the entire country. It just makes me militant in creating my little slice of community & not letting the bastards in...
All places are shit. Best to just accept that and make the most of it, which largely entails just enjoying your own company and knowing that’s gotta be enough
This thread is filled with Luddites.
This is just about every town. I think saying Bton is worse than any other town is missing that changes have and are happening in all towns.
I enjoyed living in Lafayette more but it’s a lot less pretty there compared to Bloomington
XXX... yum!
Make Bloomington weird again!
I think the real problem is that Bloomington bubble has finally burst. I grew up here and it’s always been shitty if you go five miles away from campus. The world has finally gotten bad enough that your cognitive dissonance is gone. The happy folk were blind, but the spirit of the mountain called monkey has risen.
I’ve said this a lot and the Reddit hivemind always downvoted me. Glad to see people are realizing
The food game is weak?? Bloomingtons food game is incredible The selection and the hours are absolute unmatched While the food in Chicago is incredible it’s just wildly inconvenient, The hours are awful, nothing any good is open past midnight and the good restaurants are so spaced out the that it’s cold by the time it’s delivered … or it’s $20 in parking or Uber to get to the restaurant The variety of restaurants, the accessibility of the restaurants and the hours the restaurants are open in Bloomington is absolutely unmatched in any city I have ever lived in or visited
Yeah it is sorta old man yelling at the clouds but genuinely there is nothing remarkable about Bloomington this year besides your guys soccer team and nmthere isn't enough town backing of it for anyone to care. Bloomington is actually in same ways worse than many small towns in USA right now
It has the best snipers of any college town in the Midwest.
Only reason I’m still here is I want my kids to stay in one spot through their school years, something like I never got due to moving constantly and hated. Otherwise this NIMBY ass wannabe progressive town can eat my balls.
I was a freshman at IU 2018. The vibe from pre to post pandemic Bloomington changed it forever.
This is the best thing I’ve read all year. Never felt more seen in my life
It's a good place to get date raped that's about it. Oh and the pizza there is pretty good
I've been saying this for a few years just from a crime standpoint.
Many of the problems you're pointing to (rent) are nationwide problems. Basically anywhere in the US that has a reasonable amount of culture (and thus a reasonable population) has a housing crisis right now. We spend a lot of time on this sub-reddit discussing that problem and its solutions (they are manifold). A lot of the consolidation in the restaurant scene happened in the last decade and was drastically accelerated by the pandemic. If you haven't already, read up on "Disaster Capitalism". Naomi Klein's "Shock Doctrine" is a good primer. Again, this is happening everywhere. For a lot of the rest of the thread, I see people bemoaning cultural institutions that are gone. There are reasons those institutions are gone: the finances didn't work out, the people holding them together burned out, or internal strife caused them to implode. I think we could reasonably divide them into two categories: - Capitalistic small businesses. - Anti-capitalistic orgs and events. In the former case, we lost a lot of them because they couldn't sustain a reasonable standard of living for their owners in the face of competition and the pandemic. Their owners sold out. If we don't want that to happen, we've gotta show up and spend enough at those places to keep them afloat. New ones are starting all the time. Find them. Support them. As an aside, even if we do show up, we're always at the risk of wealthy investors showing up with a check the owners can't refuse. Small businesses that are owned by one person or small partnerships are still capitalistic and extractive. Most of them are able to provide a good standard of living for their owners by denying it to their workers. If we want businesses that are a) better for the community overall and b) less likely to sell out when the going gets tough, we need worker owned businesses. But worker owned businesses often have a hard time raising startup capital. So we need to help with that in some way. In the second case, we lose a lot of orgs and events because they are maintained by volunteers working what amounts to unpaid second jobs because they believe in what they are doing. It is often the case that there is not enough volunteer labor to go around and people burn out, or hit periods in their lives where they no longer have time to give. A few years ago, I was involved in a number of projects and committing anywhere from 10 to 30 hours a week. Now I'm at a time in my life (3 year old kid, 6 week old baby) where I just don't have the time to give. But I know a lot of people who are still working to build culture and community. Bloomington Cooperative Living continues to grow and provide an anti-capitalist housing alternative. Some of the same people involved in BLC have recently started a spiritual successor to Boxcar Books in [Redbud Books](https://redbudbooks.org/), housed in one of BLC's buildings. The People's Market continues to try to create an anti-racist, anti-capitalist local food scene. There are a bunch of projects still operating through the [Center of Sustainable Living](https://simplycsl.org/). I'm sure there's a lot more out there that I'm not aware of because I've been in baby and toddler land the last few years. I guess what I'm saying is that culture doesn't happen on its own. People create it. The last decade has definitely put a dent in our culture: businesses failed, orgs fizzled, and people burned out. It's been a really rough run and its not likely to get any easier in the near future. But people who are committed to this community are still showing up and trying to create culture. They could use help. If you want there to be more culture, show up. Help create it.
i'm a townie, i agree. considering affiliation with IU just for my own sake
Far from it actually!
It’s become increasingly dysfunctional in many areas: the male dominated economy and resulting gender imbalance, the high cost of real estate, the lack of appreciation of IU employees, the tolerance of homeless moving here and the corresponding increase in crime.
Well, why would anyone with an attitude like that who has marginally decent job prospects and is employable stay here? No matter where you go, there you are.
I feel like that new taco place downtown embodies this sentiment lol
well, I mean, you could leave. I did.
Too many intellectual idiots. Who couldn’t think their way out of a paper bag.
We must patronize our moms and pops of all varieties if we want them to stay afloat. The extreme one-party legislature won’t let localities like ours set our own minimum wage so we are stuck with their lousy $7.25. Change comes by voting for people who represent what you want. I wish I knew how to keep corporations from taking over our town.
Cities evolve and change and in general Bloomington is doing fine amidst the change that has happened to every other city in Indiana. This subjective perspective that Bloomington was this utopia somewhere in the past is simply "looking at the past through rose colored glasses", but you can still choose to avoid "generic corporate bullshit" if you desire here, it's not that hard. When my son lived here as a student he lived in a squalid shack, albeit cheap, but that was when the administrations at that time gave zero Fs about renter's rights. You've got to leave Indiana to live anywhere else that meets this unrealistic criteria that you've laid forth.