Bloomington, Minnesota Bloomington, Minnesota Flag of Bloomington, Minnesota Flag Official seal of Bloomington, Minnesota Location of Bloomington Website City of Bloomington, MN Bloomington is the fourth biggest city in the U.S.
Bloomington lies 10 miles (16 km) south of downtown Minneapolis. The city's populace is 86,435, as stated to the 2015 United States Enumeration estimates. Established as a post World War II housing boom suburb connected to the urban street grid of Minneapolis and serviced by two primary freeways, Interstate 35 - W and Interstate 494, Bloomington's residentiary areas include upper-tier homeholds in the Bush Lake region and traditional middle-class families in its rows of single-family homes in the central to easterly portions.
Besides an extensive town/city park system, with over 1,000 square feet (93 m2) of parkland per capita, Bloomington is also home to Hyland Lake Park Reserve in the west and Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge in the southeast.
Bloomington has more jobs per capita than either Minneapolis or Saint Paul, due to the United States' biggest enclosed shopping center, the Mall of America. The command posts of Ceridian, Donaldson Company, Health - Partners and Toro, and primary operations of Express Scripts, Seagate Technologies and Wells Fargo Bank are also based in the city.
The town/city was titled after Bloomington, Illinois. In 1839, with renewed conflict with the Ojibwa nation, Chief Cloud Man relocated his band of the Mdewakanton Dakota from Lake Calhoun, Bde Maka Ska in Minneapolis to an region named Oak Grove in southern Bloomington, close to present-day Portland Avenue. In 1843, Peter and Louisa Quinn, the first European pioneer to live in Bloomington, assembled a cabin along the Minnesota River in this area. The government had sent them to teach farming methods to the Native Americans.
Passage athwart the Minnesota River in Bloomington came in 1849 when William Chambers and Joseph Dean opened the Bloomington Ferry.
The ferry remained working until 1889, when the Bloomington Ferry Bridge was built.
Following the Treaty of Traverse des Sioux in 1851, the territory west of the Mississippi River, including Bloomington, was opened to settlers.
A group of pioneers settled Bloomington, including the Goodrich, Whalon, and Ames families.
They titled the region Bloomington after the town/city they were from, Bloomington, Illinois, which means "flowering field." The Baliff family opened a grocery and general store at what is today Penn Avenue and Old Shakopee Road, and Hector Chadwick, after moving to the settlement, opened a blacksmith shop near the Bloomington Ferry.
In 1855, the first enhance school for all kids was opened in Miss Harrison's home with the first school, Gibson House, assembled in 1859. On May 11, 1858, the day the state of Minnesota was admitted into the union and officially became a state, 25 inhabitants incorporated the Town of Bloomington.
After 1900, the populace surpassed a thousand and Bloomington began to transform into a city.
That year voters allowed the consolidation of the schools and a year later secondary education and school bus transit began throughout the city.
From 1940 to 1960, the city's populace increased to nine times that of the populace at the turn of the century.
In 1947, the first fire station was constructed and equipped at a cost of $24,000 and the Bloomington Volunteer Fire Department was established with 25 members.
The 1950s saw a considerable expansion of the town/city and its infrastructure, with the town/city shifting away from its small-town atmosphere and feel.
It was evident that one merged school could no longer serve the burgeoning population, and ten new schools would be assembled in this decade as the school fitness expanded to meet the needs of the people.
In 1953, Bloomington changed from a township to a village form of government.
The effects of this new form of government began immediately, first with the formation of the town/city police department (at a cost of $2 per taxpayer) and secondly with the first park territory acquisition.
Today, about 1/3 of the city's territory area is devoted to town/city and county-wide parks, playgrounds, and open space. In 1956, the first town/city land-use plan was initiated with the assembly of Interstate 35 - W and Metropolitan Stadium.
The 1960s saw accelerated school and company expansion throughout the city.
On November 8, 1960, Bloomington officially became a town/city as voters allowed the city's organizing document, the City Charter.
The town/city charter provides for a Council-Manager form of government in which the town/city council exercises the legislative power of the town/city and determines all town/city policies (see City of Bloomington Government).
In 1967, a second and third official fire station were allowed and assembled to more effectively combat fires in the increasingly large city.
Owned by the City of Minneapolis but positioned in Bloomington, primary league squads played at the Metropolitan Stadium from 1961 until 1981.
From 1961 to 1981, the town/city of Bloomington was home to all the primary sports squads of Minnesota.
In 1970, Jefferson High School, Bloomington Ice Garden rink one, and a fourth fire station were built.
(In 1974, after a six-hour town/city council meeting, women were allowed to join the Bloomington Fire Department, but the city's first female firefighter, Ann Majerus Meyer, would not join the department until 1984; she retired in 2013).
In 1975 a second rink was added to the Bloomington Ice Garden and a fifth fire station built, and later a sixth in 1979.
The 1980s brought a radical change to Bloomington with the departure of the Minnesota Twins and Vikings.
In 1985, the Bloomington Port Authority purchased the 86-acre (350,000 m2) Met Stadium site and in less than two years allowed first site plans for Mall of America.
Wetlands adjoining the Minnesota River problematic a buffer between the river and the southern edge of Bloomington.
According to the United States Enumeration Bureau, the town/city has a total region of 38.42 square miles (99.51 km2), of which 34.68 square miles (89.82 km2) is territory and 3.74 square miles (9.69 km2) is water. The northeastern part of the town/city is a sand plain, low hills dominate the portion of the city, and the far south lies inside the valley of the Minnesota River.
About one third of the town/city is permanently reserved for park purposes, including two large natural areas the Minnesota Valley's wetlands (controlled by the City and the United States Fish and Wildlife Service) and the Hyland Lake Park Reserve (controlled by the Three Rivers Park District).
Water bodies inside the town/city include Bush Lake, Long Meadow Lake, Lake Normandale, Marsh Lake (Hennepin), Nine Mile Creek, Penn Lake and about 100 small lakes and ponds with their wetland surroundings.
Climate data for Bloomington, Minnesota Locally, the town/city is informally divided by Interstate 35 - W into "West Bloomington" and "East Bloomington." West Bloomington is mostly residentiary with newer housing stock, along with multi-story office high-rises along Interstate Highway 494 in the north, whereas East Bloomington contains more industry, destination retail centers, and the majority of Bloomington's less expensive housing.
Benefiting from its locale near primary transportation routes and the Minneapolis Saint Paul International Airport, Bloomington is a primary hospitality center with nearly 8,000 hotel rooms. According to the City's 2014 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, the top employers in the town/city are: 3 Bloomington School District #271 1,936 ISD 271 has served the K 12 education of the town/city since the 1960s with an operating fund revenue of $94.6 million in 2007. 15 enhance schools in Bloomington are directed by the precinct and is governed by a seven-member propel school board, appointing current Superintendent Les Fujitake in 2006. The previous Superintendent Gary Prest won the Superintendent of The Year for 2005 in Minnesota. The city's first enhance charter school, Seven Hills Classical Academy, opened in 2006.
In 1999 they allowed the then-largest school bond copy in Minnesota history, funding a $107 million school expansion and renovation project. Kennedy High School in the east and Thomas Jefferson High School in the west.
The determining boundary for high school attendance runs near the center of Bloomington on France and Xerxes Avenues, though both schools have open enrollment. Public schools in Bloomington Elementary schools Middle schools High schools Bloomington's third high school, Abraham Lincoln High School (originally Bloomington High School), was closed in 1982 and was sold to the Control Data Corporation in the mid-1980s.
Bloomington Stadium, positioned next to the former high school, is still used by both Kennedy High School and Jefferson High School for home football, lacrosse and soccer games.
Mindquest, the first online enhance high school in the United States, directed between 1995 and 2003 through the Bloomington Public Schools. Bloomington Lutheran School is a K 8 Christian school that is associated with the WELS.
The school is positioned near Bloomington Ferry Road and Old Shakopee Road.
Enumeration Bureau, White Americans made up 82.7% of Bloomington's population; of which 80.9% were non-Hispanic whites.
Blacks or African Americans made up 6.6% of Bloomington's population.
American Indians made up 0.3% of the city's population.
Asian Americans made up 5.1% of the city's population.
In addition, Hispanics and Latinos made up 5.0% of Bloomington's population.
Bloomington, Minnesota is governed by a seven-member part-time City Council.
City operations are controlled by three interrelated entities: the City itself, the Port Authority, and the Housing and Redevelopment Authority (HRA).
The HRA handles low-income housing in the town/city and manages the city's redevelopment activities.
The city's organizing document, the City Charter, was allowed by voters on November 8, 1960.
For a list of town/city mayors (past and present) see List of mayors of Bloomington, Minnesota for a list of town/city council members (past and present) see List of councilmembers of Bloomington, Minnesota Bloomington has one of the biggest volunteer fire departments in the nation with 150 firefighters.
Public safety is protected by Bloomington's 120 officer law enforcement.
Bloomington is positioned in Minnesota's 3rd congressional district.
The Bloomington History Museum focuses on the history of Bloomington, ranging from the prehistoric reconstructionthrough present day.
Noted muralist Erik Pearson's 2007 work "Creating Together" adorns the flyloft of the theater at Bloomington Center for the Arts.
Comcast provides access to four Bloomington cable tv stations for Public, educational, and government access (PEG) programming.
They include The Bloomington Channel 14 link, a elected origin of Bloomington knowledge and programming.
The Government-access tv (GATV) channel features City Council and school board meetings, a weekly news periodical show called "Bloomington Today", "Roll Call", a weekly update on enhance safety news produced by the Bloomington Police Department, arts affairs, and sports.
Bloomington Educational Cable Television (BEC-TV) highlights educational and school-based programs from the Bloomington's enhance and private schools.
Bloomington was the point of expansion for Pickleball in Minnesota, beginning about 2005 when retirees brought the sport back from their southern-states retirement homes.
From the Westwood Athletic Fields in southern Bloomington, other groups formed and interval to an active statewide player populace in excess of 1,500.
Bloomington is also the home of Pickleball - Minnesota , the Pickleball website serving the state and the Upper Midwest.
Tom Gilbert NHL player, interval up in Bloomington and attended Jefferson High School.
City of Bloomington.
Bloomington History at its former website History of Bloomington Archived March 11, 2007, at the Wayback Machine.
"Bloomington History Unit adapted from Bloomington on the Minnesota".
Bloomington Public Schools.
"Bloomington History".
City of Bloomington.
City of Bloomington.
"Average weather for Bloomington, Minnesota USA".
"Thermo King Corporate Headquarters 314 West 90th Street, Bloomington, Minnesota 55420 " City of Bloomington CAFR Bloomington Public Schools.
Bloomington Public Schools (June 8, 2006).
"Les Fujitake titled to lead Bloomington Public Schools".
Bloomington Public Schools (2005-11-03).
Bloomington Public Schools.
NHL Players Born in Bloomington, MN | Quant - Hockey.com Bloomington, Minnesota City of Bloomington Website Bloomington Sister City Organization Website South Metro Public Safety Training Facility, of which Bloomington is a beginning partner
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