8 Great Places You've Never Heard of: Bloomington, Indiana

I have grown up in Bloomington and still think of it as one of the
best places in Indiana. The people there are consistently welcoming
and I have always seen the town as very diverse. Going through high
school I have yet to see a week where nothing it going on. The
thing about Bloomington is that yes there are two Bloomingtons, the
college and the town but they are not so separate. Instead they
blend together, and the university is part of the reason for why
Bloomington is so diverse. The town consistently votes democrat and
is also very politically involved. The Lotus festival does draw
people from all over, but there are other things such as the IU
Auditorium, which draws Broadway performances, and also the 4th
Street Festival that draws artists from all over the country.
Though I am now going away for High School I always come back a few
times a month to have a relaxing weekend, get breakfast at The
Village Deli, and play checkers at People’s Park. Bloomington is a
place everyone should visit just to have the experience.

The two of us live here in Bloomington; it is a great place to
live. However, it's interesting how the large amount of corporate
and big businesses surrounding campus and Kirkwood Avenue was
glossed over in the article. It's difficult to understand what is
so sustainable about corporate coffee shops and fast food
restaurants that serve up their items in styrofoam, paper, and
plastic, which fill dumpster after dumpster daily. These businesses
are rapidly emanating from the Sample Gates and advancing along our
downtown streets. We agree that there are many options for locally
minded consumers throughout Bloomington, but WE have a long way to
go.

I lived in Bloomington for 6 years. It is a wonderful community
teeming with intellectual activity. The arts and culture
opportunities in Bloomington are significant, including the
wonderful performances associated with IU's Jacobs School of Music,
which is one of the best in the nation. Bloomington is a great
college town in which diversity--in all of its forms--is welcomed
and embraced. I didn't know what to expect when I first moved to
Bloomington, but I quickly fell in love with it. I am able to
periodically visit and have been impressed with the continued
progress of the city and IU. I am hopeful that, upon retirement, I
am able to return to live. Thank you for the very nice recognition
that your magazine has provided.

yes. I still live in Bloomington. And it's still the biggest
concentration of PCBs in the world. We did stop the experimental
garbage fueled incinerator, but there are still perhaps as many as
2000 unaddressed hazardous sites. Officials don't seem to admit it,
but there are many other chemicals, like trichloroethylene,
toluene, heavy metals like cadmium, and many more delights,
inlcuding that some of these turn to phosgene when exposed to
sunlight... and PCBs were burned here creating both phosgene and
dioxin. We have many sad stories here, kids with spina bifida,
rhabdomyosarcoma, anancephaly (born with brain outside the skull),
and many brain cancers, infertility problems, handicapped children,
many stillbirths and many other dis-eases. One little girl played
in a drainage ditch and died after her skin fell off. Oh, and
property taxes just went up, some so high people are protesting for
fear of losing their homes. SO I guess the author of this, a former
epA person, didn't look a bit closer- or worse, chose to ignore it
as Mother Earth did after I called them to say some of this.

I am a graduate of Indiana University, and my brother lives there,
so I visit often. There are actually two Bloomington's - the
college part and the town part. Both are nice but are very
different. The University is far more "Mother Jones" than the town,
which tends to be Conservative and Republican. Nevertheless, it is
a place in Indiana I would live, were I to return to the Midwest.

I grew up in Bloomington. I went to school there from 4th grade on,
graduating from University High School in 1966. It was a great town
to grow up in! I have many fond memories of riding my bike all
around town, going to the Little 500 evnets, playing the piano in
the practice rooms at the IU School of Music, playing basketball
and football in the old fieldhouse. Although I'm sure Bloomington's
still a great place to live, I haven't lived there since I left for
Rose Poly in Terre Haute in 1966.