In more recent years, Bloomington, Indiana has taken a hit. A once-thriving town is now full of empty storefronts, constant construction, a split-up farmer’s market, an abundance of new apartments, and yet little to do. 

Shut Downs

Arguably, what makes or breaks a town are its local stores and restaurants. Since around 2019, homegrown businesses in Bloomington have been on the decline, leading to the loss of many local favorites, including Darn Good Soup, Global Gifts, Switchyard Brewery, The Laughing Planet Cafe, and the two most recent victims, Cafe Pizzaria and The Irish Lion. 

Many Bloomington residents mourned the recent loss of Cafe Pizzaria, from reading about the closure in The Herald-Times to posting about the beloved restaurant on social media. However, the more eye-catching closure was Irish Lion. As Bloomington is a college town, it has become a melting pot of different cultures, and it seems almost as if there’s a little piece of everywhere here. With The Irish Lion shutting down, the town lost its only Irish restaurant. Stores and restaurants shouldn’t struggle this much to stay open, especially those that tend to be lively most of the time. Bloomington must try harder to keep local businesses alive.

Even when it comes to town necessities that aren’t local specialties, Bloomington has lagged behind as well. Both Red Mango and Orange Leaf have shut down, leaving the town empty-handed in the frozen yogurt department. But perhaps the biggest upset in the essentials branch was the closure of Barnes & Noble, which was replaced by yet another grocery store. While the town compensated for Barnes & Noble with Morgenstern’s, which has become a new local hot-spot, the smaller bookstore is slightly more selective, and has  a smaller children’s section. Although the words “necessities” and “essentials” are subjective, most people wouldn’t argue with more options for a sweet treat and a good book. 

Construction

Not only are stores shutting down, but so are the roads. The most recent aggravating road closure was North Indiana Avenue, perpendicular to E. Kirkwood Avenue, which made it difficult to get off of Kirkwood. Currently, College Mall Avenue and 8th has a lane closed, as well as a few more roads downtown. This makes it hard to navigate around town, which irritates residents. But you’d think with as much roadwork as the city has, they might try to fill in a few pot holes. If you can’t use one road then you’re stuck with another that has a pothole big enough to swallow your smart car. 

On the topic of construction, the city decides we need a new apartment complex every day. While housing is definitely necessary, an apartment complex on every block is excessive. Apartments everywhere look boxy, block views, and create a sense of overcrowding. These apartments are taking away from the original charm of Bloomington with how we tear down old buildings that added to the true feel of Bloomington to put up a giant box. It also tends to take years to build a complex, and they start on another one before the first one is even finished. It would be smarter to pick one or two construction projects to work on at a time and get those done faster before moving on to a new one. 

Activities

Food Truck Friday, a common staple in most places, currently takes place in Switchyard Park, but it used to be in the once bustling area of the old Chocolate Moose shack. Every Friday, the food trucks would park in the parking lot of the Chocolate Moose, attracting tons of families. Kids would play in line; adults would get some fresh air after being stuck inside all day; music would be filtering out from across the street at the old Player’s Pub; and both Chocolate Moose and the food trucks would make more than a few bucks due to how many people showed up. But the iconic A-frame shack, considered a historical mark of Bloomington, was knocked down to put up more rectangular apartments, putting an end to the most fun Fridays many can recall in Bloomington. 

Bloomington is the seventh most populated city in Indiana, with around 80,000 people; however, there’s barely anything to do. College Mall has a whole wing shut down and an abundance of empty storefronts in the parts that aren’t closed. The mall used to be a go-to place when people were bored. It had Macy’s, Glow Golf, Yankee Candle, and even indoor bungee jumping for the kids. But the past few years, the mall has really gone downhill. For some reason, there’s a whole store for just energy drinks, but no decent places to shop for clothes. The city would really benefit from some more popular clothing stores for teens and adults, and a revamp of the closed wing.

The College Mall Target is also one of the busiest Targets in the month of August due to the college students moving in. But we only have one Target and it’s not even a Super Target. A Super Target would definitely get some use here, we could even move it into the old Macy’s so it would be two stories, and then put another big popular department store where the Target is now. This would attract more people to the mall, bringing in more funds, and satisfaction all around.

On top of no shopping, there is only one movie theater left standing in Bloomington, besides the Starlight Drive-in and IU cinema, which doesn’t play any up-and-coming movies, after the recent closing of the AMC Classic 11. The AMC Classic 12 sits off of I-69, and is a mediocre excuse for a movie theater. During the pandemic, people were stuck at home and not allowed to go out to the movies, so it was fine for there to be two movie theaters not up to par, since no one was going. But the act of going to the movies has been working its way back into daily life. Bloomington deserves a movie theater that people actually want to go to, a nice movie theater, possibly modeled after The Living Room Theater in Indianapolis, which has reclining seats and practically a full restaurant. This kind of thing would do really well in Bloomington.

Sub-par shopping and movie theaters leaves a minimal amount of activities for teens and up. Although, one thing this town does have to look forward to is the new Dave & Buster’s going in where the old Bed, Bath & Beyond was. Despite this atypical win for Bloomington, Dave & Buster’s can tend to be a bit pricey, thus making it something people may not go to as often. Furthermore, only one thing for people to do in this town isn’t going to satisfy anyone. We should work on creating more activities and gatherings for people around town. 

Farmer’s Market

The most prominent thing that’s fallen apart in Bloomington is the farmer’s market. In the lot next to City Hall, every Saturday morning and early afternoon, local farmers, shops, restaurants, and bakeries pitch tents, and local musicians come and play their instruments for the people. But it’s not what it once was. In the doomed year of 2019, controversy arose amongst the farmer’s market when protests started. One vendor at the market was found to be a part of a white supremacist group and other vendors protested for their removal. When the vendor wasn’t asked to leave, other vendors and businesses did as to not be affiliated with them anymore. While the main market stayed in the City Hall lot, certain businesses set up camp in other places around town. The farmer’s market had crashed.

This crash just sent the ball rolling on Bloomington’s downfall. Although, in the past year it seems like the number of people visiting the farmer’s market each week is returning to normal, but some shops and businesses still choose to sell elsewhere each Saturday. We need to reunify the market and make sure the numbers keep up so we can restore it to its original glory.

Bloomington’s decline has been noted by many and it’s time to try and fix it. This town had a charm that was hard to replicate, and we need to bring it back. We should find a way to reunite the farmer’s market, help local shops stay in business, have more activities around town for the people, and bring the mall back to life.