Bloomington, Minnesota

Bloomington is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States. It is located on the north bank of the Minnesota River above its confluence with the Mississippi River, south of downtown Minneapolis and just south of the Interstate 494/694 Beltway. The population was 89,987 at the 2020 census, making it Minnesota's fourth-largest city, and the largest suburb of the Twin Cities.

Bloomington was established as a post–World War II housing boom suburb connected to Minneapolis's urban street grid, and is serviced by four major freeways: Interstate 35W running north–south through the approximate middle of the city, Minnesota State Highway 77, also signed as Cedar Avenue, running north–south near the eastern end of the city, U.S. Highway 169, running north–south along the western boundary of the city, and Interstate 494 running east–west at the northern border. Minnesota State Highway 100 also terminates within city limits at Interstate 494. Large-scale commercial development is concentrated along the I-494 corridor. Besides an extensive city park system, with over 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 in part to the United States' largest enclosed shopping center, the Mall of America, which is located inside of the city. The mall has over 500 stores and contains an amusement park. The headquarters of Dayforce, Donaldson Company, Great Clips, Dairy Queen, HealthPartners, and Toro, and major operations of Pearson, General Dynamics, Seagate Technologies, and Express Scripts are also based in the city.

The city was named after Bloomington, Illinois.

History

thumb|left|Built in 1856 on the bluffs of the Minnesota River, the [[Gideon H. Pond House is now listed in the National Register of Historic Places.]]

In the 1780s, a village called Titanka Tannina existed in what is now Bloomington, at the mouth of Nine Mile Creek. 'Titanka Tannina' is Dakota for 'the Old Village', likely meaning that Titanka Tannina was the first Dakota community on the Minnesota River. The Chief at that time was Penasha, who would be succeeded by his son, Takuni Phephe Sni. He would then be succeeded by his son, Good Road, in 1833.

In 1839, with renewed conflict with the Ojibwe nation, Chief Cloud Man relocated his band of the Mdewakanton Sioux from Bde Maka Ska in Minneapolis to an area named Oak Grove in southern Bloomington, close to present-day Portland Avenue. In 1843, Peter and Louisa Quinn, the first European settlers to live in Bloomington, built a cabin along the Minnesota River in the area. The government had sent them to teach the Native Americans European-derived farming methods. Gideon Hollister Pond, a missionary who had been following and recording the Dakota language from Cloud Man's band, relocated later that year, establishing Oak Grove Mission, his log cabin. Pond and his family held church services and taught the Dakota school subjects and Western farming. Passage across the Minnesota River in Bloomington came in 1849 when William Chambers and Joseph Dean opened the Bloomington Ferry. It remained operational until 1889, when the Bloomington Ferry Bridge was built.

After the Treaty of Traverse des Sioux in 1851, the territory west of the Mississippi River, including Bloomington, was opened to settlers. At this time, native Dakota villages such as Titanka Tannina were abandoned. A group of pioneers settled in Bloomington, including the Goodrich, Whalon, and Ames families. They named the area Bloomington after the city they were from, Bloomington, Illinois. Most early jobs were in farming, blacksmithing, and flour milling. The Oxborough family, who came from Canada, built a trading center on Lyndale Avenue and named it Oxboro Heath. Today, the Clover Shopping Center rests near the old trading center site and the nearby Oxboro Clinic is named after them. 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 public school for all children was opened in Miss Harrison's house, with the first school, Gibson House, built in 1859. In 1892, the first town hall was built at Penn and Old Shakopee Road. By then, the closest Dakota to Minneapolis lived at the residence of Gideon Pond. In 1956, the first city land-use plan was initiated with the construction of Interstate 35W and Metropolitan Stadium.

In 1957, Bloomington High School opened at West 88th Street and Sheridan Avenue South.

In 1958, the city changed from a village government to a council-manager form. One of the first policies the council adopted was encouragement of commercial and industrial development, low-cost housing, and shopping centers. Due to the rapid population increase during this time, police and fire departments changed to a 24-hour dispatching system, and the fire department (now with 46 members) converted a garage into the second fire station.

1960s to 1970s

thumb|[[Bloomington Kennedy High School was built in 1965]]

The 1960s saw accelerated school and business growth throughout the city. On November 8, 1960, Bloomington officially became a city as voters approved the city's organizing document, the city charter. The charter provides for a council-manager form of government in which the city council exercises the city's legislative power and determines all city policies (see City of Bloomington Government). In 1965, a second high school, John F. Kennedy High School, was built, and Bloomington High School was renamed Abraham Lincoln High School. In 1967, a second and third official fire station were approved and built to more effectively combat fires in the increasingly large city. In 1968, Normandale State Junior College opened with an initial enrollment of 1,358 students. In 1974, it was renamed Normandale Community College to reflect expanded courses of study.

thumb|right|Owned by the City of Minneapolis but located in Bloomington, major league teams played at the [[Metropolitan Stadium from 1961 until 1981. It was demolished in 1985 to make room for the Mall of America.]]

From 1961 to 1981, Bloomington was home to most of Minnesota's major sports teams. In 1961, after the completion of Metropolitan Stadium in 1956, both the Minnesota Twins and Minnesota Vikings began regular-season play. Though originally built for the American Association Minneapolis Millers, a minor league baseball team, Metropolitan Stadium was renovated and expanded for Major League Baseball and the National Football League. The first Twins game was held on April 21 (Washington 5, Twins 3) and the first Vikings game was held on September 17 (Vikings 37, Chicago Bears 13). On August 21, 1965, The Beatles played Metropolitan Stadium, their only stop ever in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area. In 1967, with the expansion of the National Hockey League, the Metropolitan Sports Center was built near Metropolitan Stadium and the Minnesota North Stars began play later that year.

A number of new city buildings were constructed in the 1970s. In 1970, Thomas Jefferson High School, Bloomington Ice Garden rink one, and a fourth fire station were built. In 1971, school enrollment peaked with 26,000 students, and the fire department had grown to a force of 105 men. (In 1974, after a six-hour city council meeting, women were allowed to join the Bloomington Fire Department, but the city's first female firefighter, Ann Majerus Meyer, did 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, with a sixth added in 1979.

1980s to present

thumb|left| Bloomington skyline thumb|right|Bloomington [[IKEA]]The 1980s brought radical change to Bloomington with the departure of the Twins and Vikings. On September 30, 1981, the last baseball game was played at Metropolitan Stadium (Kansas City Royals 5, Twins 2) as the Twins and Vikings moved to the newly constructed Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome in downtown Minneapolis for the 1982 season. In 1985, the Bloomington Port Authority purchased the Met Stadium site and in less than two years approved first site plans for Mall of America. Two years later, groundbreaking took place for the new megamall, and in 1992, it opened to the public. Today, tenants of Mall of America, when combined, constitute the largest private-sector employer in Bloomington, employing about 13,000 people.

In 1993, the Minnesota North Stars moved to Dallas, and a year later the Metropolitan Sports Center was demolished. In 2004, an IKEA store opened on the west end of the former Met Center site. The remainder of the property is planned to be the site for Mall of America Phase II. In May 2006, the Water Park of America (now Great Wolf Lodge) opened.

In 2019, Bloomington passed an ordinance that forbade filming students of Dar Al-Farooq Islamic Center in a public park. This led to a successful lawsuit in the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit against the city to reinstate the First Amendment rights of the parties involved. Keith Ellison had previously asked the court to drop the case.

Bloomington was a potential site for hosting the Expo 2027. However, in June 2023, Belgrade, Serbia was chosen for hosting the Expo 2027. In November 2023, Bloomington voters approved three ballot questions enacting a 0.5% local option sales tax to raise $155 million for the construction of three municipal projects: a new public health and community center replacing Creekside Community Center, renovations to the Bloomington Ice Garden, and restoration and improvements to Nine Mile Creek.

Geography

thumb|Bloomington includes portions of the Minnesota River Valley on its southern and eastern sides

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has an area of , of which is land and or 9.73% is water.

| date = August 2010

| source =

| width = 100%

The city is informally divided by Interstate 35W into "West Bloomington" and "East Bloomington". West Bloomington is mostly residential 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. The dividing line may be placed as far west as France Avenue, where the high school attendance boundaries meet.

Economy

The city is home to a large contingent of employers, providing more than 100,000 jobs. Benefiting from its proximity to major transportation routes and the Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport, Bloomington is a major hospitality center with nearly 8,000 hotel rooms.

Ceridian, Donaldson Company, the Evangelical Free Church of America, Great Clips, Leeann Chin, HealthPartners, Holiday Stationstores, Highland Bank, Thermo King, Dairy Queen and Toro have their headquarters in Bloomington.

Top employers

thumb|[[Mall of America and its tenants represent the largest employer in Bloomington.]]

According to the City's 2023 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report, the top employers in the city are:

{| class="wikitable sortable"

! #

! Employer

! # of Employees

|Mall of America (Tenants)

|11,000

|HealthPartners

|3,533

|Bloomington School District #271

|1,950

|Seagate Technology

|1,365

|Toro

|1,150

|Donaldson Company

|1,126

|General Dynamics

|775

|NCS Pearson

|683

|Ziegler

|675

|10

|GN Resound

|660

Other major employers include Express Scripts, Thermo King Corporation/Ingersoll Rand Inc., and Polar Semiconductor Inc.

Development

While the city is still largely suburban in nature, Bloomington has promoted the development of several urban nodes, particularly in areas well-served by public transportation. The Penn-American District, located near the center of the city, is home to Southtown Center and several new apartment buildings, and is served by the Metro Orange Line. The Normandale Lake District contains a large office complex and is situated between Normandale Lake and Interstate 494. Finally, the South Loop District, which forms the area around the Mall of America, encompasses the Minnesota River bluff and many new hotel, apartment, office, and retail buildings, including the Bloomington Central Station development on the Metro Blue Line light rail.

Education

ISD 271 has served the pre-kindergarten to grade 12 educational needs of the city since the 1960s, with an operating fund revenue of $148.1 million in 2020. Fifteen public schools in Bloomington are operated by the district as well as a K-12 online school, governed by a seven-member elected school board, which appointed Superintendent Eric Melbye in 2021. The previous superintendent, Les Fujitake, served from 2006 until 2020. The city's first public charter school, Seven Hills Preparatory Academy, opened in 2006. As many families remain in or continue to move into the city, there has been support for levy increases. In 1999, the then-largest school bond issue in Minnesota history was approved, funding a $107 million school expansion and renovation project.

The district's two high schools are John F. Kennedy High School in the east and Thomas Jefferson High School in the west. New Code Academy is an online high school for students in any area. The determining boundary for high school attendance runs near the center of Bloomington on France and Xerxes Avenues, though both schools have open enrollment.

{| style="margin: 1em auto 1em auto"

! colspan="3"|Public schools in Bloomington

! Elementary schools !! Middle schools !! High schools

| Hillcrest Community || New Code Academy || John F. Kennedy

| Indian Mounds || Olson || Thomas Jefferson

| Normandale Hills || Oak Grove

|New Code Academy

|Valley View

| rowspan="8" |

| Oak Grove

| rowspan="7" |

| Olson

| Poplar Bridge

| Ridgeview

| Valley View

| Westwood

Bloomington's third high school, Abraham Lincoln High School (originally Bloomington High School), closed in 1982 and was sold to the Control Data Corporation in the mid-1980s. Bloomington Stadium, next to the former high school, was used by both Kennedy High School and Jefferson High School for football, lacrosse, and soccer games until 2025. In 2025, both schools constructed their own stadiums, and have fully phased out Bloomington Stadium due to the significant repairs needed, and similar long-term costs.

Mindquest, the nation's first online public high school, operated between 1995 and 2003 through the Bloomington Public Schools.

Private schools

Bloomington Lutheran School is a K–8 Christian school associated with the WELS. The school is near Bloomington Ferry Road and Old Shakopee Road.
Nativity of Mary School is on Lyndale Avenue. It is associated with the Nativity of Mary Catholic Church and community.
United Christian Academy provides K–12 Christian Education. Just west of France Avenue on 98th Street, it is interdenominational with representation of over 60 different Christian churches.

Higher education

thumb|right|Japanese garden at [[Normandale Community College]]

Normandale Community College is a two-year college with about 18,000 full- and part-time students, founded in 1968. It is part of the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities (MnSCU) system.
Northwestern Health Sciences University focuses on alternative health care and patient research, in the areas of chiropractic, acupuncture, oriental medicine, and massage.
Rasmussen University offers more than 70 programs leading to associate degrees, bachelor's degrees, and a variety of certificates and diplomas.