Bloomington, Broad Ripple provide customers with cultural atmosphere

High school hangouts, college cafés, hipsters, youngsters, adults in business suits, adults in party clothes.

All of these factors come together to create the arts and culture scenes of the Bloomington Arts and Entertainment District and Broad Ripple Village in Indianapolis.

“Every city has got that hip area where people are into vegetarianism and being more aware of what’s going on politically,” said Cactus Flower manager Aya Smith. “It’s just what’s trendy right now.”

Downtown Bloomington and Broad Ripple are comparable as both areas cater to an alternative atmosphere providing off the beaten path restaurants, shops, galleries and music venues. The most important factor that establishes the identity of downtown Bloomington and Broad Ripple as alternative arts and culture districts are the people who frequent the areas and establish residency in them.

“It’s just people who want something different,” said Broad Ripple Vintage employee Alyssa Riley. “People in Broad Ripple and people in Bloomington, they’re young, they’re looking for new ideas.”

But how does a stroll down Kirkwood Avenue differ from a jaunt down Broad Ripple Avenue?

The Red Brick Road
When starting a journey down Kirkwood, one of the first things noticeable is the red brick sidewalk. As visitors look up, they are greeted with the visual appeal of unique and ancient architecture, creative signs and window displays. Flowerbeds and trees line the bustling streets, and park benches provide scenic resting areas.

“The one thing I liked about Bloomington was downtown was a cooler place to hang out during the day,” said Steve Ross, owner of The Vogue Theater in Broad Ripple. “Whether it was on the square or walking up and down Kirkwood, it just seemed more open.”

The sidewalks of Broad Ripple pin walkers between strip-mall buildings and Broad Ripple Avenue, leaving little space for lingering.

“We don’t have a park downtown,” Ross said. “There aren’t a lot of places just to hangout and sit down on the side of the street.”

While Broad Ripple does contain the canal running parallel to the main avenue and the rainbow bridge, these areas are mostly used for duck feeding and not convenient, scenic hangouts.

Downtown Bloomington has People’s Park on Kirkwood, Third Street Park and Dunn Meadow along its outskirts.

Shopping and Munching
A stroll down the main strip in either place reveals several corporate overlaps, in both the food and shopping industries. Bloomington and Broad Ripple both contain Jimmy Johns, Noodles & Company, Qdoba Mexican Grill, Starbucks and Pitaya among others.

Pitaya was originally founded in Bloomington and now has 16 locations primarily established in university areas.

“I feel that we can sell slightly more expensive items here because a lot of times it is an older customer,” said Indianapolis Pitaya store manager Ashley Martz. “The same thing in terms of style, I think sometimes something that would appeal to an older customer would do better here than in Bloomington where they don’t sell them very quickly.”

Another key factor in the clothing markets in each location is the presence of thriving second hand stores.

“I lived in a small town and I had to make my own fashion,” Riley said. “If you go back in history, fashion didn’t recycle itself, it evolved because of socioeconomic reasons. Now it’s recycling itself and coming in and out. It’s all because you can go get second-hand stuff and make it cool again when you’re 20.”

Riley said she noticed vintage clothes in Indiana are usually older and cheaper than in other regions of the United States.

“People in Indiana as a general rule are not as fashion oriented so I feel like they do not turn over their clothes as quickly,” she said.

The Jams
One key element to any arts area is the music scene and to accommodate these demands, towns need venues to hear, play and purchase music.

“Indianapolis has a great music scene, but it never quite reaches a cohesion point,” said TDs Cds and LPs manager Michael Anderson. “Whereas Bloomington just has huge swells of tons of awesome bands that kind of evolve.”

In addition to TDs Cds and LPs, Landlocked Music and Tracks Music & Videos all compare to Indy CD & Vinyl, on Broad Ripple Avenue. The physical size of the Indy CD location allows for the stocking of extra merchandise including Metallica action figures, Jimi Hendrix bobble heads and an 18-inch Kurt Cobain figure with sound.

In Indianapolis, the flashing lights of The Vogue sign resemble Las Vegas, if only momentarily. The only thing this flashy in Bloomington is the Buskirk Chumley Theater sign, displayed in a similar eye catching style.

In terms of concert venues, The Vogue in Broad Ripple and the Bluebird Nightclub in Bloomington are the most comparable. Each provides locations for national touring acts and rock the house with local gigs.

“The biggest thing at the Bluebird were the local nights with the local bands,” Ross said, who owned the venue from 1981 to 2005. “It was strictly college kids coming in. The concerts were an older market. It’s similar to The Vogue, the dance shows are typically a younger crowd.”

In Bloomington, the music scene produces strong enough bands and audiences that they easily pack the downtown venues, while the prominence of Indianapolis allows for the booking of bigger names.

Ross said the Bluebird is more likely than The Vogue to book local bands.
“Unless a band is packing the Bluebird we aren’t going to book them here,” he said.

Day and Night
The pinnacle difference between Bloomington and Broad Ripple is the presence of IU and more than 40,000 students fueling the downtown economy and influencing the excessive presence of IU apparel stores.

These students flood the downtown streets, frequenting the coffee shops, restaurants and other hangouts during the day.

“Bloomington is more vibrant during the day than Broad Ripple,” Ross said. “Downtown Bloomington also has more outdoor café’s, like The Bake House. Whereas Broad Ripple really didn’t get into that until lately, and there are really only a handful
of places.”

Martz said she thinks that a primary difference between Bloomington and Broad Ripple is the respective target audiences of the bars and nightclubs.

“It’s more of a mixture of income levels and ages,” Martz said. “There are definitely bars here that appeal specifically to an older clientele or a specific type of customer. I feel like IU is a lot more homogenous at the bars.”

Because the majority of the college population in Bloomington is underage, most partying occurs in houses and off campus locations. Broad Ripple provides a mecca for older crowds to gather and socialize at night. So for two arts districts that appear similar, the difference is literally day and night.

“Kirkwood on a weekend at its worst is nowhere near the stumbling puke fest of Broad Ripple on the weekend,” Anderson said.