Bloomigton (Indianapolis, Bloomington, Monroe: school, university, living)

[REM]

Since Indianapolis is closer to it than northern Indiana is I thought i would ask a few questions about Bloomigton.

Well me and a friend of mine are moviving down there for college this fall and we wanted to know what it's like.
I'm gay and would like to know if they have any gay friendly areas: bars, stores, you know. I would also like to know how good the underground scene is there? Something like live venues,small coffee shops, boutiques, thing like that. Last is diversity how is it there? I mean in terms of people living there and on places to eat. ANyTHING else we should know would be helpful also.

[domergurl]

When I was an IU student, I thought that the campus was very welcoming and open to all. When I was there, the local gay bar was Bullwinkles, but not sure if it's still there ... in any event, you could check out this site ... GLBT Student Support Services Office - Indiana University Bloomington You can sign up for their listserv and I'm sure you'll get all the information you want. BTW, my favorite place to see bands was the Bluebird ... good times, good times.

[babygirl5608]

Diversity here is like nothing I've seen before really. There are people from all over the world...if I were you, get on the GLBT website link from above. It shows calender events for members of the GLBT community to get together. There's usually something every week if I remember. In the spring, they have a Miss Gay IU...its basically a huge drag show. I went last year and had a really good time..people travel from all over Indiana just to watch this event. As far as coffe shops, Starbucks took over a lot of the town...you will find them anywhere. However, there is Soma on Kirkwood (right off of campus and is pretty much were all of the bars and college kids hang out). There is also the Copper Cup one located on Third Street and Jordan, one on College Ave right next to Cardinal Fitness, and another one going out towards Walmart by BW3's.

Check out 4th Street. It has nice little restaurants that carry cuisine from all over the world. There is another place right across the street from the public library on Kirkwood too. I never ate at any of them, but I hear a lot of people like going there to try new food.

There are always live concerts in parks and at the bars. I joined the Monroe County Humane Society on facebook and they send me volunteer opportunities and activities that they open up for the community. If you arent into animals, maybe there's something like that on facebook that you would interest you more.

That's all I can think of right now, if you have any questions or want more details about something, feel free to send me a message! Good Luck!

[babygirl5608]

Oh yeah, and if you are the out-doorsy type, check out Griffey Lake which is right off campus for canoeing or hiking, Lake Monroe which is south of town...McCormick's Creek State Park, Brown County, ect. There are tons of really nice parks around too. I'm sure there's other hiking areas around but I'm not into the outdoors much, but look into that if it interests you as well!

[chalcedony]

Bloomington should be highly gay-friendly. It's a liberal college town.

As for the underground scene, with music in particular they're doing quite well. Some very prominent independent music labels--such as Secretly Canadian and Jagjaguar--are based in Bloomington, which helps the city lure pretty good bands, in addition to having some locally grown ones. The Jacobs School of Music is second to none, so one would expect a lot of musical talent, if that's your type of thing.