Bloomington sinks in magazine rankings

To the naked eye, Bloomington appears to be growing so much it's bursting at the seams. Restaurant openings, construction of new buildings and the sudden rise in apartment buildings downtown all contribute to what seems to be a bigger and better Bloomington.\nInc. magazine, an entrepreneurship-based business magazine, conducts annual rankings to judge the best cities in which to do business. In 2005, Bloomington ranked No. 19 for the best overall city in which to do business. But in the 2006 rankings, Bloomington plummeted to No. 290 out of 390 cities. \nA semantic spot of hope lies in the placement, though. This year's rankings had different criteria than the previous years. For this reason, last year's rankings cannot be directly compared past lists. \nThis year's data reflected the North American Industry Classification System categories, which include total non-farm employment, financial services, manufacturing, business and professional services, educational and health services, retail and wholesale trade and transportation. \nThe 2006 rankings used four rates of growth to rank all areas for which data sets were available from the past ten years. In total, 393 regions were tallied. \nChristy Steele, president and CEO of the Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce, recently surveyed chamber members to see what their business concerns were. \n"After surveying our chamber members, we narrowed down their top critical concerns. Those are health care costs, infrastructure and local government efficiency," Steele said. "In addition, increasing the efficiency of the local government and expanding the base of skilled workers will ensure more business success." \nAccording to Inc.'s 2006 Hot Cities list, the country's largest urban areas are continuing to lag. In fact, New York City was ranked 292 -- just two rankings below Bloomington. Instead, smaller towns and regions are entrepreneurial hotspots. It is easier for smaller, emerging regions to report big growth rates as opposed to larger, more mature regions. In 2005, Bloomington also ranked fifth overall for doing business in small cities. But being small does have its advantages. \nInc. magazine classifies large areas as having a non-farm employment base of at least 450,000 jobs. Medium areas vary from 150,000 to 450,000 jobs. Small areas have up to 150,000 jobs. \nTo spur more growth in the city, Steele stresses that businesses and customers need to foster closer ties. \n"To promote growth, we are trying to enhance work opportunities. We want to articulate the role of business to the community and educate the public of its role in business," Steele said. "We need to create a vibrant business climate, and in turn people will want to give back to the community." \nSteele also said the chamber aims to enhance networking and link businesses to appropriate customers. \nImprovements in transportation will clearly help the Bloomington area. Local laws also impact business decisions, Steele said. \n"Something that is up-and-coming is the zoning ordinance," Steele said. "We need to address issues of signage and extra parking to encourage business growth." \nBloomington resident Sharon Futate owns Relish Ingredients for Living, a shop that offers unique home accessories, clothing and housewares. Relish opened two years ago when the owners decided to open a new store after having a good experience conducting business in Bloomington. \n"We had previous business experience here, and we really liked it," Futate said. "We always weigh in and out about opening up a store in Indianapolis"