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Bloomington, IN. Good place to live? (1 Viewer)

Excellent. It's really hard to go wrong with any mid-sized city that hosts a major university, as long as you don't mind the students.

 
I have a friend that lives there who is originally from Seattle, so that should say something. He's married and just had a kid last year.

 
Great place. Get there often for work. Both cook medical and boston scientific have big presence there. Easily can score a job there, doesn't matter if you only have high school or college degree. You can find a well paying job. I work with all the big medical manufactures and the employees at cook seem the happiest by far. Plus you're close to indianapolis.

 
Bobby Knight-related violence is way down.

Edit: Seriously, it's a nice place to live. A little isolated -- more cut off from the rest of the state than you'd think. Also, southern Indiana is basically northern Kentucky. But its a nice college town with a great state park nearby.

 
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Isolated was already a concern before mentioned here.

Proximity to Indy is nice, though my experience is that you don't make those hour drives to other cites as often as you'd think.

Doesn't seem to have much of a national music venue or scene, other than the acts that go to Deer Creek (90 mins away) in summer.

 
Although, as a word of warning, by no means should you look at a map and say to yourself, "Hey, plus if I ever want to jam up to Indy, it's only like 50 miles away!"

That fifty miles feels like crossing the Sahara on a sloth. 37 between Indy and Bloomington is a nightmare. In my experience, it's a lot more like minimum two hours, and can push three if the cards don't fall right.

 
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Freelove said:
Although, as a word of warning, by no means should you look at a map and say to yourself, "Hey, plus if I ever want to jam up to Indy, it's only like 50 miles away!"

That fifty miles feels like crossing the Sahara on a sloth. 37 between Indy and Bloomington is a nightmare. In my experience, it's a lot more like minimum two hours, and can push three if the cards don't fall right.
Click to expand...
Although Interstate 69 (snicker) is being extended from Indy to Evansville going through Bloomington, so this should improve in a couple years. Unfortunately, the Bloomington-Indy leg appears to be the last one to be done.

eta: link

 
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heckmanm said:
Freelove said:
Although, as a word of warning, by no means should you look at a map and say to yourself, "Hey, plus if I ever want to jam up to Indy, it's only like 50 miles away!"

That fifty miles feels like crossing the Sahara on a sloth. 37 between Indy and Bloomington is a nightmare. In my experience, it's a lot more like minimum two hours, and can push three if the cards don't fall right.
Click to expand...
Although Interstate 69 (snicker) is being extended from Indy to Evansville going through Bloomington, so this should improve in a couple years. Unfortunately, the Bloomington-Indy leg appears to be the last one to be done.

eta: link
Click to expand...
True enough. I just wouldn't want to have to rely on it being done before 2025. I've always secretly believed the state delights in keeping their only liberal oases isolated from one another.

 
Freelove said:
heckmanm said:
Freelove said:
Although, as a word of warning, by no means should you look at a map and say to yourself, "Hey, plus if I ever want to jam up to Indy, it's only like 50 miles away!"

That fifty miles feels like crossing the Sahara on a sloth. 37 between Indy and Bloomington is a nightmare. In my experience, it's a lot more like minimum two hours, and can push three if the cards don't fall right.
Click to expand...
Although Interstate 69 (snicker) is being extended from Indy to Evansville going through Bloomington, so this should improve in a couple years. Unfortunately, the Bloomington-Indy leg appears to be the last one to be done.

eta: link
Click to expand...
True enough. I just wouldn't want to have to rely on it being done before 2025. I've always secretly believed the state delights in keeping their only liberal oases isolated from one another.
Click to expand...
I live on the opposite side of Indy, so I haven't followed the construction very closely. I noticed there's no timetable published for the last couple of sections, but I have no idea what the official target is.

 
Freelove said:
Although, as a word of warning, by no means should you look at a map and say to yourself, "Hey, plus if I ever want to jam up to Indy, it's only like 50 miles away!"

That fifty miles feels like crossing the Sahara on a sloth. 37 between Indy and Bloomington is a nightmare. In my experience, it's a lot more like minimum two hours, and can push three if the cards don't fall right.
Click to expand...
Interesting to hear. Do you drive this stretch often?

 
houston said:
Freelove said:
Although, as a word of warning, by no means should you look at a map and say to yourself, "Hey, plus if I ever want to jam up to Indy, it's only like 50 miles away!"

That fifty miles feels like crossing the Sahara on a sloth. 37 between Indy and Bloomington is a nightmare. In my experience, it's a lot more like minimum two hours, and can push three if the cards don't fall right.
Click to expand...
Interesting to hear. Do you drive this stretch often?
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I used to religiously avoid driving it, but no longer reside in the area. It's just a mostly unavoidable stretch littered with stoplights and feeder streets. There's no good way to navigate between those two cities. Which on the one hand always seemed mostly ok to me, since Bloomington had plenty of everything I could have wanted, but on the other hand would make it suck if you were dead set on some sort of Indy-based season tickets or something.

Or it would also suck if you and a spouse have jobs in each of the two cities, and need to figure out a good compromise. Unless you have a hankering to live in a small town with nothing even remotely in common with either Indy or Bloomington.

 
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Lived there for 20 years as a kid and college. Was really a great place to grow up. It's a small town, but having a big university helps in terms if some things to do. Area is somewhat scenic as well with some nice lakes.

In terms of being close to Indy, didn't really see that as a big deal unless you need to fly a lot or something. Not a ton of reasons to drive up there really, no disrespect there Indy. If you are craving some big city stuff just suck it up and take a long weekend in Chicago.

 
Freelove said:
Although, as a word of warning, by no means should you look at a map and say to yourself, "Hey, plus if I ever want to jam up to Indy, it's only like 50 miles away!"

That fifty miles feels like crossing the Sahara on a sloth. 37 between Indy and Bloomington is a nightmare. In my experience, it's a lot more like minimum two hours, and can push three if the cards don't fall right.
Click to expand...
I have driven between Indy and bloomington well over 100 times. Never ever room more than an hour and fifteen minutes.

 
The General said:
Lived there for 20 years as a kid and college. Was really a great place to grow up. It's a small town, but having a big university helps in terms if some things to do. Area is somewhat scenic as well with some nice lakes.

In terms of being close to Indy, didn't really see that as a big deal unless you need to fly a lot or something. Not a ton of reasons to drive up there really, no disrespect there Indy. If you are craving some big city stuff just suck it up and take a long weekend in Chicago.
Click to expand...
Would really only matter if you were into pro sports, I'd think. Indy isn't exactly a cultural mecca, and Bloomington, being a major university town, has a lot more culture than the average 75k city, and a plenty robust economy.

 
Freelove said:
The General said:
Lived there for 20 years as a kid and college. Was really a great place to grow up. It's a small town, but having a big university helps in terms if some things to do. Area is somewhat scenic as well with some nice lakes.

In terms of being close to Indy, didn't really see that as a big deal unless you need to fly a lot or something. Not a ton of reasons to drive up there really, no disrespect there Indy. If you are craving some big city stuff just suck it up and take a long weekend in Chicago.
Click to expand...
Would really only matter if you were into pro sports, I'd think. Indy isn't exactly a cultural mecca, and Bloomington, being a major university town, has a lot more culture than the average 75k city, and a plenty robust economy.
Click to expand...
Agreed.

If the Hoosiers can ever get it back on track it can fill some of the sports fix. The place goes absolutely nuts.

 
Bloomington has a good variety of restaurants. The school system is fairly good. Indiana has a great music school which helps provide a good cultural experience. Yeah, not much on the concert tour circuit, so Road trips to catch a big concert is a must. The new ballpark makes watching Indiana baseball games a good experience. Beisides Indy, Cincy is only an hour and a half away and Louisvllle is a tad closer. A few decent breweries and wineries in the area. Going to Nashville, IN is also pretty cool. Great place to see the fall colors and a lot of artists and crafts shops there.

 
jon_mx said:
Freelove said:
Although, as a word of warning, by no means should you look at a map and say to yourself, "Hey, plus if I ever want to jam up to Indy, it's only like 50 miles away!"

That fifty miles feels like crossing the Sahara on a sloth. 37 between Indy and Bloomington is a nightmare. In my experience, it's a lot more like minimum two hours, and can push three if the cards don't fall right.
Click to expand...
I have driven between Indy and bloomington well over 100 times. Never ever room more than an hour and fifteen minutes.
Click to expand...
I don't use the word hero lightly, but you sir, are a hero.

Now, okay, "three hours" is a worst-case-scenario king of thing. But the "hour and ten minutes" I've always seen on google maps is a flight of fancy. We always got a good chuckle out of it. Since a big part of the issue is lights and feeders, a lot probably depends on what time of day or night you travel, but right up on two hours was about my average over a decade of livin'. That's been a while ago. Maybe things have streamlined, but from local boards, it doesn't seem so.

Here is a recent discussion from another board, where natives are talking commuting times with potential transplants: http://www.city-data.com/forum/indianapolis/2018677-advice-commuting-times-quality-life-indy.html

 
Freelove said:
jon_mx said:
Freelove said:
Although, as a word of warning, by no means should you look at a map and say to yourself, "Hey, plus if I ever want to jam up to Indy, it's only like 50 miles away!"

That fifty miles feels like crossing the Sahara on a sloth. 37 between Indy and Bloomington is a nightmare. In my experience, it's a lot more like minimum two hours, and can push three if the cards don't fall right.
Click to expand...
I have driven between Indy and bloomington well over 100 times. Never ever room more than an hour and fifteen minutes.
Click to expand...
I don't use the word hero lightly, but you sir, are a hero.

Now, okay, "three hours" is a worst-case-scenario king of thing. But the "hour and ten minutes" I've always seen on google maps is a flight of fancy. We always got a good chuckle out of it. Since a big part of the issue is lights and feeders, a lot probably depends on what time of day or night you travel, but right up on two hours was about my average over a decade of livin'. That's been a while ago. Maybe things have streamlined, but from local boards, it doesn't seem so.

Here is a recent discussion from another board, where natives are talking commuting times with potential transplants: http://www.city-data.com/forum/indianapolis/2018677-advice-commuting-times-quality-life-indy.html
Click to expand...
Are we talking rush hour commute going into downtown Indy at 7:30am on a weekday or a Saturday afternoon drive to catch a Pacers game?

Those are two very different things.

 
One thing to note is that Bloomington really is a college town. IU has a gorgeous campus and provides lots to do, but Bloomington pretty much is IU.

By way of contrast, I spent five years living in Lafayette (grad school). Purdue is obviously a major university in the same tier as IU, but Lafayette enjoys quite a bit of light industry and retail that provides a vibrant economy apart from the university. In other words, Lafayette (including West Lafayette here) is a town with a college, while Bloomington is a college town. Make sense? Your experience in these sorts of communities can vary wildly and its helpful to keep these differences in mind. I'd rather retire to a town like Bloomington, but it might be easier to raise a family in a town like Lafayette.

 
That makes perfect sense. Surprised to hear Lafayette spoken in such nice terms, my perception of that city was definitely worse.

 
I've lived in Bloomington for about 20 years now.

Just big enough (courtesy of IU) to make it a nice place to live.

There's a definite divide here; cutters vs academics.

Hoping the the eventual I69 influence will help to strengthen the blue collar population here.

 
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houston said:
That makes perfect sense. Surprised to hear Lafayette spoken in such nice terms, my perception of that city was definitely worse.
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Bloomington definitely reads as more "idyllic college town" than Lafayette, even though Bloomington is slightly bigger even without the college. It's not really quite a white-collar/blue-collar divide, but you'll find a lot more blue collar lifestyle in Lafayette, if that's your preferred vibe. The housing is cheaper, crime is a bit higher (though by no means high), retail is a bit more chain-y, the politics skew a lot further right, and it's just all in all a bit grittier. Never struck me as a bad place, though.

If one were going to arrive first, then look for employment, Lafayette may be a better bet. If one had it all lined up already, I'd tend to prefer Bloomington. But the case is by no means cut and dried. I'd imagine lots of people would prefer Lafayette.

 
Lafayette is not much of a town to look at. IU campus is an extremely nice campus and Bloomington has a nice downtown area with a good mixture of of stuff for students and residents. The east/southeast is the more affluent area and generally the better schools, but the west side has developed in the last 15 years with a lot of the chain-type stuff. Shopping is adequate, but is lacking so road trips to Indy occasionally.

On a side note, Billy Joel says the best steak he ever had was at Little Zagreb's. I tend to agree with him. It is a total dive, but they do know how to cook steaks.

 
jon_mx said:
Lafayette is not much of a town to look at. IU campus is an extremely nice campus and Bloomington has a nice downtown area with a good mixture of of stuff for students and residents. The east/southeast is the more affluent area and generally the better schools, but the west side has developed in the last 15 years with a lot of the chain-type stuff. Shopping is adequate, but is lacking so road trips to Indy occasionally.

On a side note, Billy Joel says the best steak he ever had was at Little Zagreb's. I tend to agree with him. It is a total dive, but they do know how to cook steaks.
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It's near the top for me.

So is the price...

 
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Job opportunity would be at IU, so no need to further discuss Layfayette, unless you all like to.

Are there any newer schools or neighborhoods that have sprung up in Bloomington?

My assumption is there isn't much in terms of housing or neighborhoods north of Bloomington if I'd want to consider living closer to Indy either for entertainment or potential spouse work reasons?

Some good info in here, I appreciate the responses.

 
Sorry. I just brought up Lafayette as something to contrast with Bloomington. Not trying to make a case for it or anything.

 
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houston said:
Job opportunity would be at IU, so no need to further discuss Layfayette, unless you all like to.

Are there any newer schools or neighborhoods that have sprung up in Bloomington?

My assumption is there isn't much in terms of housing or neighborhoods north of Bloomington if I'd want to consider living closer to Indy either for entertainment or potential spouse work reasons?

Some good info in here, I appreciate the responses.
Click to expand...
Generally the most desirable elementary schools are Childs, Rogers-Binford, and University. But there are no cheap houses and very few lots to build on in those districts, 300K and up in most cases. Still not outrageously expensive. I have built a lot of homes there, but not doing that much anymore.

 
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