Are you thinking about living in Bloomington - Normal, Illinois, and want somebody to give you the bottom line of what it's really like? In this episode of Anything But Normal, I'm going to give you the good, the bad, and the ugly of living in Bloomington IL. We’ll look at the pros and cons and discover the top three reasons that people love living here.

I'm about to give you the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Hey guys, it's Brady Lockenour, and welcome to another article for Anything But Normal, where we cover Anything and everything about living in Bloomington Normal Illinois.

In this article, I'm going to tell you about the pros and the cons of living in Bloomington.

We're going to start by giving you the top three reasons that people love living here.

So first, and my favorite reason to live here is the food. 

Let’s be really honest here, the Midwest doesn’t have tons of exotic activities, but man do we have food options. You name the food and I nearly guarantee you, we have it here in Bloomington. 

• Smash Some Tacos at Ancho and Agave for top notch Mexican Cuisine

• Wake up and enjoy Tom’s Pancakes

• If Barbeques is what you're craving you have to try The Brass Pig.

• We have fantastic breweries to check out as well, try Destihl Brewery and Little Beaver Brewery, among others. 

• I could go on forever with restaurant recommendations, but here are locals favorite picks: Time’s Past, Thai House, Anju Above, Fort Jesse Cafe, Baxters, and Biaggis, Ivy Lane Bakery, Epiphany Farms, Tony’s Tacos, The Brass Pig), Breweries like Destihl Brewery and Little Beaver

But let’s get into the second reason that people love living here. 

The Activities. 

Bloomington is described by many as “Everything you need and nothing that you don’t”. We have a wide variety of things to do.

Parks and Recreation: We have lots of parks and a 46 mile trail called the Constitution Trail. It's made up from the old railroad track, walking, jogging, and biking are all permitted there!

Art Galleries: if you enjoy admiring works of art, go and see: University Galleries, Mclean County Arts Center, Hanger Art Gallery, Main Street Gallery and Great Collections at Uptown Station. 

Live Concerts and Theater: The Castle, The Stable, Jazz Upfront for concerts. And ISU and IWU put on recitals, plays, lectures, and film screenings. 

During the Summer: we have places for Water activities, at Comlara Park, Moraine View State Park, and Lake Bloomington.

Shopping: And of course we have shopping in the bag, Red Raccoon for cool games and collectables, the Collectable Corner for card games, Bobzbay Bookstore for, of course, books, and the Garlic Press for literally anything you need for your kitchen, also if your into thrifting we have those stores too! Check out Neighborhood Thrift, among others. 

Farmers Markets: we have SO many great farmers in the area and there's just something about buying some of the freshest produce out there. You don’t want to miss the weekly Saturday morning Farmer’s Market in Downtown Bloomington on the square. Live music and lots of fun and its all free.  Except the produce of course.  

Sports: HOORAAHH. I’m not a huge Sportsball fan, but we have the Cornbelters for Baseball and the Redbirds at ISU for everything else. If you aren’t a Redbird your a dead bird you know what I’m saying.  I also don’t want to forget to mention our impressive Ice Rink courtesy of US Cellular where you can skate or watch Ice Hockey.  Now that's a real sport!  

So now that we know about all of the great food and activities here, the third thing that people love about living in Bloomington Normal  is the central location to 3 major cities. 

That’s right, when Bloomington just doesn’t have that exact thing you're looking to do on your weekend off, in less than two and a half hours you can be in Chicago, St. Louis, Or Indianapolis. We are centrally located, so you will never miss out.  

Just in case you can’t find something to do in Bloomington. But I don’t suspect you will have any problems. 

Bloomington is growing fast with many job opportunities, the school districts are great, and we have that Midwestern Hospitality “Ope Didn’t see you there, Hi How are you?” as I casually carry on with my day. 

Now with all of these amazing things about Bloomington, there of course have to be cons of living here. So… let’s get into it. 

The first Con of living in Bloomington and I hate to say it, but yes, Bloomington is kind of flat, there really isn’t much scenery, no oceans or large bodys of water, no mountains or caves for exploring, and there aren’t cool waterfalls. If you want a little of all three of those things though, you can drive an hour and a half to Starved Rock to tide you over until Vacation. 

The second thing that everyone either loves or absolutely hates is the weather. We definitely see all four seasons here.  Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall.  And while I love the changing seasons, some really don’t.  We have hot humid summers, and frigid cold winters with ice storms and power outages.  Our sunny winter days  are randomly followed by Cold and Snowy ones. Some years we can get 12+ inches of snow, and other years can be mild with less than a few inches.  We are generally just right during Spring and Summer.  

The third thing is that Bloomington Illinois is literally surrounded by corn fields. So if you have bad allergies either consider moving somewhere else, or stock up on allergy meds. 

 

All right.  Now those are the pros and cons as I and many others see it.  I didn’t even cover our amazing economic impact, amazing schools, endless employment opportunities, and affordable housing but those are all things that speak for themselves.  

Well, I hope that this video  you has given you some insight into life here.

We help people every day relocate to our area.

And if we can help you move in, move up, move out or move on, we are always here and ready to serve.  

We'd love to help you in whatever way we can..  

If you have any additional questions, please feel free to reach out. We're always here to help.

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My name is Brady Lockenour with the HomeSmart Pros team at HomeSmart Premier Realty. 

We hope you join us for life in Bloomington, Where life is Anything But Normal!

If you would rather watch a video about our town, see below!