Talk:Bloomington, Indiana

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  • Requests: It is not clear if the population of 70,000 includes or excludes the 40,000 students. See for example clearer writeup for Ann Arbor.

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[edit] Diverse?

Bloomington is "diverse"??? Perhaps by the standards of one who has never left Indiana! As an "outsider" forced to live in Bloomington, I had the sense that it was very Midwestern, very conservative, very uniform. The article reads like a piece of Indiana-sponsered propaganda rather than anything providing useful information.—Preceding unsigned comment added by 12.210.106.229 (talk • contribs) 15:25, 2 April 2006

It's probably a touch too POV, but there's plenty of references elsewhere to Bloomington being a diverse community. "Diverse" is subjective. You found it to be anything but. A number of people find it to be considerably diverse. Given the presence of things like the Bloomington Early Music Festival, The LOTUS Festival, celebration of African languages, and plenty more of the same, plus an international population from over 100 countries, I think there's substantial enough basis for saying "diverse". --Durin 17:15, 2 April 2006 (UTC)
The anonymous poster is on crack. Especially if you live anywhere in the university quadrant, it is extremely diverse. The easy way to expose your children to diversity in Bloomington is to send them to University Elementary School, and Bloomington High School North. Plus there are tons of ethnic restaurants (including The Snow Lion, run by the Dalai Lama's brother!) —Joseph/N328KF (Talk) 17:39, 2 April 2006 (UTC)
I'd say diversity is also relative, and in this case the appropriate standard would probably be other towns of Bloomington's size in southern Indiana, not, say, New York City. By this standard, there's not question about Bloomington's diversity, in ethnicities, cultural events, alternative lifestyles (well, you name it). -- MikeGasser (talk) 03:30, 3 April 2006 (UTC)
One thing is that the diversity as expressed by the census bureau is skewed by the fact that many of the students that make the town most diverse are not permanent residents (or even citizens), and thus do not show up on census reports. None the less, they still contribute to the diversity of the city, as it is a constantly replenished phenomenon. —Joseph/N328KF (Talk) 13:33, 12 July 2006 (UTC)
First of all, I'm sorry for entering this fray without realising. I am personally of the opinion that a generic POV statement like "diverse" should be avoided, especially in such a prominent position. If Bloomington can be proven to be diverse, mention what statistics indicate that it is diverse. As it is, simply sticking "diverse" seems to the reader as if the town is pimping, when it is not backed up.--Trafton 16:24, 12 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Breaking Away

Okay, perhaps I'm being too picky for detail, here. But the statement, "The city was the site of the Academy Award-winning movie Breaking Away, featuring the annual IU bicycle race Little 500" isn't completely correct. The race in the film was staged down to the last detail, but it wasn't actually a Little 500. As I recall, they filled up the stands with spectators who paid an admission fee that went to charity. -Phil --Ptemples 13:34, 6 April 2006 (UTC)

You are being way too picky; no one is saying the movie documents an actual Little 500. That's why it's a movie, i.e. work of fiction. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Eightball (talkcontribs) 02:06, 16 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Excised section

The following section was added to the article in this edit under the section header "The Day The Music Died:

On April 20, 2006 at 11:40 P.M, a small plane carrying all five IU Jacobs School of Music students returning to Bloomington from a rehearsal of Monteverdi's Vespers in Lafayette crashed in a densely wooded area south of the airport and also south of the train trestle near Bloomington. 911-callers reported a low-flying plane in distress, and some heard a loud boom in some parts of Bloomington. The plane was believed to have taken off at Lafayette Airport at about 11 P.M was on enroute to Bloomington. The airports in Indianapolis and Terre Haute which operate 24 hours a day, reported the plane disappeared from radar at almost midnight.

While this was undoubtedly a tragic event, Wikipedia is not a memorial. I would suggest, as an alternative, Bloomingpedia, Bloomington's City Wiki. –Abe Dashiell (t/c) 23:52, 7 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Famous Residents

The Famous Residents section is problematic. Many of those listed do not presently live or overtly own property there (David Lee Roth, Sam Wyche), and some are only there because of their relationship to IUB (former IU presidents, present IU faculty). There might be separate lists, one for "native sons/daughters" (David Lee Roth, Jared Jeffries), and one for "residents" (which only contains people outside of the University, such as Jeff Sagarin and John Mellencamp, who make their home in the city). All others should be either excised or moved to the Indiana University Bloomington page. Who's with me? --Nufftin 18:21, 12 May 2006 (UTC)

We already did that once, by moving those people who were residents by way of being students at IU. The remainder are people who either chose to live here for non-student reasons or were born here/moved here by their parents. I think the list is fine as it is now. --Durin 18:45, 12 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Famous residents 2

In regard to the recent addition of Jeremy Gotwals to the list of famous residents, I can only ask, what makes this guy famous? I find 9 ghits, one of which is this article. Otherwise, nothing indicates he is famous or notable, and he does not have (deserve?) a Wikipedia article. I think he should be deleted. ---Charles 04:05, 28 July 2006 (UTC)

Yeah, you should probably delete him. He was just on Made on MTV. Charles 02:10, 16 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Seth Patinkin case

It seems that Seth Patinkin has decided to also hit wikipedia too with his quest to bring down Mark Kruzan and the rest of Bloomington. I just wanted to let anyone who needs more information about this whole thing know that we've gone through this on Bloomingpedia and you can find out more information about the whole thing here, here and probably here. Thanks -- Suso 04:21, 10 September 2007 (UTC)