Comparing Muncie and Bloomington

We often hear of cities being compared to one another based on the fact that they have similar population densities. The idea, one supposes, is that what might be considered a valid observation in one city (or within an aggregate of such cities) could or should be emulated by any other city of similar size. Government agencies, for instance, often refer to such comparisons when setting the pay rates for police, firefighters and other employees. There would appear to be a good deal of logic to this practice in the most general terms, and the exercise is often useful, if not outright productive. One might suspect, however, that comparing apples and oranges based solely upon their density is myopic at best, and inconsequential at worst. When comparing cities of similar size, it helps to establish other points of similarity before one places too much stock in the conclusions drawn from the comparison. If the only significant similarity between two cities is population density, there is a fair degree of certainty that the numbers are only worth a casual mention, and may in fact be dismissed as coincidental.So it is when we endeavor to compare Muncie with Bloomington....I spent the first 20 years of this life living in Muncie. I then spent the next 15 years living in Bloomington. So perhaps I can offer a perspective of some use in any attempt to compare these two similarly-sized Hoosier cities.

The most obvious initial difference between Muncie and "the Gulch" (as locals like to call Bloomington) is the topography. Where Delaware County is flat as a board, with broad expanses of land denuded of trees and few recreational areas, Monroe County is a rolling, heavily forested region with lots of winding roads and thousands of acres of beautiful, secluded areas where people like to kick back and get mellow. The closest we come to that is the Cardinal Greenway, a single bike path made of old retired rail paths that many folks around here thought was a waste of time and money to create.

There's a taste of Appalachia in the air in Bloomington. You can almost hear the gentle sound of banjos and fiddles as you walk the streets of Bloomington, whereas here in Muncie you're more likely to hear boom cars bellowing hip-hop at earth-shaking levels.

But the most significant difference between Muncie and Bloomington is the dynamic between town and gown. The Gulch has had its share of manufacturing, to be sure, but compared to the enormous presence and prestige of the seminal campus of the Indiana University behemoth, the influence of industry is much less pronounced than it is here in Muncie. IU essentially put Bloomington on the map, and continues to drive the economy and cultural mileau of the community at large.

By comparison, Ball State University (while prominent in some areas of study) is a much smaller institution, and it has only been in recent decades that it has contributed significantly to the economy and influenced our local culture.

In short, Bloomington has ALWAYS been a town built and powered by IU, an internationally known center of higher learning, with a little manufacturing cropping up here and there -- whereas Muncie was a bonafide manufacturing monster in its golden years, which just happened to have a teacher's college (and that only due to the heavy beneficence of our premier manufacturer, Ball Brothers). BSU has subsequently grown to fill some of the vacumn left as industry gave up the ghost to foreign imports, NAFTA, and the general outsourcing of middle-class jobs. But there's a begrudging resistance, I think, on the part of many Munsonians to the increasing influence of BSU, and a sort of resentment that Muncie is slowly becoming a true college town instead of a mecca for blue-collar folks.

In Bloomington we find a very diverse population, most of them highly educated and deeply involved in politics, environmentalism, cultural development and social activism. In Muncie, you'll find a small segment of the population which might fit in with the Bloomington crowd, but your garden-variety Munsonian (more likely to be a decendent of disenfranchised industrial workers than retired university professors) has little in common with the average Bloomingtonian. Most locals would have less interest in discovering common social values with the people of Bloomington than they would in watching a good NASCAR race on ESPN.

In Bloomington, you'll find elected leaders more responsive to the people, leaders who go into office with the idea of doing the people's business efficiently and leaving behind a positive legacy. Here in Muncie -- well, one hardly needs to comment on the perennial status quo of Delaware County politics, does one?

Muncie and Bloomington are both cities of moderate size within the State of Indiana. The comparison pretty much ends there. I think the prospect of either city attempting to emulate the other is a non-starter. Bloomington would never sink so low, and Muncie (unless and until something changes) will never reach so high.

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