Mapping Gentrification on Bloomington’s West Side
Jen Watkins, Nichole Ballard, Kirsten Hawley, Elizabeth Coggeshall
A Brief Banneker History
Written by Jen Watkins, data support from Kirsten Hawley, Elizabeth Coggeshall, Nichole Ballard
The Banneker Community Center has been an important part of the Bloomington community for more than a century. Formerly a segregated school, Banneker became a community center in 1954 and has, in its several iterations, been a focal point for both the Near West Side neighborhood and Bloomington’s Black community. But in the last 75 years, the social and physical space of the Near West Side has changed dramatically, resulting in a community landscape that is noticeably altered. One of Banneker’s ongoing goals is to make visible these changes. The neighborhood as a historical site, first for Black segregation and later for Black community and celebration, is slowly being lost to the transformation of the Near West Side into a space of revitalization, conservation, and gentrification. By focusing on areas of geographic change, such as the diffusion of the Black community into other areas of Bloomington and the dramatic change in housing prices in the past 10 years, we hope to expand the city’s racial and social discourse of the past and present and to engage with and challenge claims to diversity and multiculturality that do not fully represent the broad range of histories and current experiences of residents of Bloomington.
1960s
1955 to 1965 saw a substantial amount of change to Bloomington at large and the Near West Side in particular. The Showers Brothers Furniture Company, a driving force in Bloomington’s economy and a major employer of the neighborhood’s residents, closed in 1955, having never really recovered from the Great Depression and a series of strikes over a 10-year period. Showers not only offered workers’ compensation and financing for employee homes, but also employed women and African Americans at a time when many others did not. Subsequently, an influx of workers flocked to the area, and the closure of the factory had major impacts for the Near West Side.[1] 1955 also saw the first wave of chronic housing shortages that would be a driving force for future zoning decisions.[2] Massive social change occurred in 1961 Bloomington, with Indiana passing its civil rights law, replacing previous legislation from 1885.[3] In this same year, the city passed a resolution citing the need for a public housing authority[4], and developed the first plans for urban renewal on the northwest side.[5] These changes signified a major shift in racial dynamics in the city by the mid-1960s and led to tensions that affected public housing, zoning, and even the safety of the Banneker Community Center itself.
1990s
The mid-1990s saw two important shifts for the Near West Side neighborhood. In 1993, in response to public input, May Tomi Allison initiated a plan for the downzoning of Bloomington neighborhoods. The result was the single-family zoning that is currently in place, changes to which have been a recent source of city tension. While keeping all multiplexes and multifamily rentals in place through grandfathering, this initiative prohibited the creation of new multifamily rentals in key neighborhoods.[6] In the same year, the Showers building was purchased from Indiana University and converted into a research park and office center that includes the new Bloomington City Hall, shifting the focus of the Near West Side neighborhood to city government.[7]
Today
Today, the Near West Side looks very different from its pre-civil rights counterpart. More than 20 years after the revitalization of the Showers factory property as the site of Bloomington City Hall, CFC Properties’ headquarters, and the Bloomington Farmers’ Market, the area has seen an influx of new businesses and residents, but also significant social and demographic changes. Additionally, its 2019 designation as a local conservation district has resulted in a development boom and increasingly high housing prices. This new designation made it the largest protected district in the city. At the same time through the rebranding of the neighborhood as a conservation district, the Bloomington City Council amended a proposed development ordinance to prohibit multifamily housing complexes in the city’s core neighborhoods.[8] The city’s proposed goal for these changes was to, “protect the integrity and unique, diverse character of the Courthouse Square Downtown Character Overlay and the University Village Downtown Character Overlay areas…[and] accommodate the need for student housing while minimizing any negative impacts of that housing on residential neighborhoods or the character of downtown and other mixed-use areas.”[9] But an essential question is, which histories are being protected and preserved, and which are let go in the name of economic progress?
Bloomington’s core neighborhoods remain nearly 50% rental citywide. On the west side, some neighborhoods are more than two-thirds rental and most of Bloomington’s Section 8 housing remains in this part of the city.[10] We frequently hear a citywide narrative that multifamily housing and rentals are predominantly student based, deteriorating, and a threat to Bloomington’s oldest neighborhoods. But it is in fact the opposite that threatens the Near West Side’s rich history as a working-class and Black community. Increased housing prices, downzoning, and conservation have resulted in the pricing out of many of Bloomington’s working-class families in the neighborhood, leading to a diffusion of the Banneker Community Center’s core community across the city, often to the industrialized peripheries. This challenges the city narrative that what is good for the city, and the university, is by default good for all of Bloomington’s many communities, some of which are daily becoming more hidden and more marginalized than others.
Map assembled by Nichole Ballard and Kirsten Hawley
Map assembled by Nichole Ballard and Kirsten Hawley
Information assembled by Elizabeth Coggeshall
Works Cited
[1] Designation protects Bloomington's near west side. Indiana Landmarks. (2019, December 15). Retrieved March 13, 2022, from https://www.indianalandmarks.org/2019/12/designation-protects-bloomingtons-near-west-side/
[2] "Help Us House 9,000 More Students-Wells," Herald Telephone, January 8, 1955
[3] Indiana History Bulletin: Centennial of Emancipation, 1863-1963 (Indianapolis: The Indiana Historical Bureau, 1963), 13-14)
[4] "City Paves Way For Public Housing," Daily Herald Telephone, April 5, 1961.), First talks about urban renewal plan ("Mayor Promises To Meet With Affected Persons," Daily Herald Telephone, May 17, 1961.
[5] "Urban Renewal Plan Approved," Daily Herald Telephone, June 23, 1961
[6] “Bloomington’s Zoning History Offers a Lesson for Today” Chris Sturbaum. The Dissident Democrat. https://www.stopbtownupzoning.com
[7] The Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce: A History: 1915-2003, 31-32
[8] Designation protects Bloomington's near west side. 2019.
[9] Bloomington Indiana, Code of Ordinances, Title 20 - UNIFIED DEVELOPMENT ORDINANCE. Municode Library. (n.d.). p. 22-28. Retrieved March 13, 2022, from https://library.municode.com/in/bloomington/codes/code_of_ordinances?nodeId=TIT20UNDEOR
[10] Sturbaum 2020