…because the boyfriend and I are moving there very soon, from the San Francisco area. Will I die from boredom like all my fellow Californians assume? What are the great and terrible things about Bloomington? What advice can you give us about our move, fun things to do there, good and bad places to live, etc.? We did go for a brief visit–just a few days.
Well, what do you do and how old are you?
Bloomington is a college town, thus there is a lot more to do there than in your typical midwestern town – though it’s directed at college-age folks.
Bloomington is the best college campus in the United States. Bar none.
I have lived here in Bloomington for 18 years. It is a beautiful city. It’s crowded with IU students during the school year, but when they leave it’s much more peaceful. There are trees everywhere, a lot of greenery, very very nice natural environments. There are a good number of beautiful country drives on the outskirts of town and around Brown County. There is a surprising number of ethnic restaurants. Right across the street from where I am sitting right now, there is a Chinese restaurant, a Japanese restaurant, a Turkish restaurant, a pizza parlor (Mother Bears) which is rated one of the best in the nation, a pub, a cofeeshop, and, I kid you not, a rabbit sitting right outside my window which would make an excellent meal. This is all within half a block.
There is a little area (4th street) with a bunch of ethnic restaurants. Moroccan, Turkish, Tibetan, Eritrean, Indian, Arab, and Thai, to name a few, within two blocks, all owned and staffed by actual immigrants from these countries. There are many other good restaurants all over the downtown area. The Tibetan restaurant, I believe, is owned by the brother of the Dalai Lama (not a joke.)
The downtown area has a lot of character. I remember it being much more run down when I was younger, a lot more homeless people, grafitti, trash, dilapidated buildings. I actually LIKED it that way, and have to say I am almost kind of sad to see it get “cleaned up” - but in any case it’s a very nice area. There are a lot of unique bars and restaurants around, as well as some great shops. There is a tobacco and luggage store on the square which might be the classiest shop I’ve ever been in, it’s like something from a Norman Rockwell painting.
There is a smoking ban in all public places in Bloomington. I think this is horseshit, but if you’re not a smoker you will probably like it. Once doctors get into a city government, you can kiss smoking goodbye - one MD on the city council, and it’s smoke-free forever. That’s what happened here, and what’s happening in many towns around here. I personally find that smoke adds to the atmosphere of a bar, but like I said, I also like homeless people and grafitti. I just don’t like antiseptic environments, they seem cheap and soulless. I digress. Anyway, no smoking in Bloomington.
There are some nice neighborhoods with old houses, and a lot of cheesy suburban cookie-cutter areas. There are some run down trailer park areas and on the outskirts of town it’s mostly blue collar.
Keep going east on 3rd street, past 446, and you’ll pass really nice houses on the side of country roads, small farms, and some of the nicest views you’ll ever see, and then eventually you’ll be in Nashville, Indiana, a little artist-colony type town. Keep going West on 3rd Street, and you’ll be on the West Side, which is a very shitty looking stretch of chain restaurants, strip malls, and factories. Keep on going and you’ll be on 46 heading towards Spencer, which is a very very nice drive also. The scenery around Southern Indiana is so beautiful, especially in the summer and fall.
This is a very cultured area for Indiana, in terms of things like art and music. There are a few museums, there are some local theaters, many artsy and hipster types, and also a good garage rock scene. The University also has an excellent music school so there is ALWAYS music related shit going on. You will not be bored if you can be content with enjoying stuff like this. On the other hand, if you’re the kind of person who buys a $2,000 bottle of booze in a club with flashing lights, you will not find much to do here.
I love this town.
We’re in our mid-twenties. My boyfriend is going to business school and I will be (with any luck) working from home–telecommuting to my current job at a translation company. I like some aspects of college life (bookstores, liberal politics, and indie rock) but not others (beer bongs and barf on the lawn). We are vegetarians and I was delighted to find the vegetarian restaurant in the main square. I like cooking, gardening, reading; my boyfriend likes playing guitar, meditation, art. Not sure what else to tell you…
What Argent Towers said. You don’t have to stray very far afield to get into some very conservative country, however, which may or may not be your thing.
I went to college there in the 70’s. Rent Breaking Away sometime to see what it looked like then. (The Little 500 is a real bike race.) There is a fair amount of hiking nearby, again mostly in Brown County. Lake Monroe is right out of town. The Story Inn, again in Brown County, is awesome (though not cheap).
I lived in the Bay Area for a short while. I love San Francisco too but comparing San Francisco with Bloomington isn’t really a fair fight… the scale is too different. I would much rather live in Bloomington - the Bay Area is far too crowded (and expensive) for my tastes. It’s not quite Berkeley but it’s not that far from it either.
Ah, yeah you should be fine then. Always stuff going on, as Argent Towers said, and if you’re around that age, you’re likely to find something you enjoy.
I didn’t see this the first time. You’ll feel right at home.
And additionally, if you’ve got a livejournal, there’s a Bloomington community here.
**Argent Towers, **wow, thanks for all the information. What are nice areas of town to live in, and do you have any resources to recommend for a house hunt? I’d like someplace fairly quiet, but with easy access to campus. When we visited, they took us around to a bunch of luxury apartment complexes–The Fields, etc.–which were nice, but I would never in a million years live in a place like that in SF; I prefer places with “character” and I feel like those big apartment complexes overcharge. However, my mom pointed out that living in a place like that would mean that I would never have to shovel my own driveway, and nice new places are well-insulated and warm in the winter, unlike older homes with “character”… weather considerations that never entered my Californian head.
Also, this is going to sound totally dumb, but should we look for a place on the ground floor? What happens if we rent a top-floor apartment and a tornado heads into town? (this in fact happened when we were visiting recently–also the day of the golf ball-sized hail) Do we just knock on the ground-floor neighbor’s door? Hide in a closet? I have no instincts for dealing with this kind of natural disaster. I feel silly even asking anonymous people on a message board this question, but the fact that our orientation packet included instructions for dealing with tornadoes makes me feel like I’m not *completely *crazy for thinking about such things.
Actually, if it’s an apartment of the type where you enter from the inside (i.e. there are long hallways on the inside of the building), the ground floor (or basement, if there is one) hallway would probably be the safest place in a tornado. If you enter on the outside, I’d guess a ground-floor apartment would probably be best. It doesn’t actually happen all that often, but don’t feel stupid trying to figure out how to deal with it. Most people in the midwest probably wouldn’t know how to deal with earthquakes (although the New Madrid fault isn’t too far away, so we’re starting to pay a little more attention to that too…).