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 headquarters of Dayforce, Donaldson Company, Great Clips, Dairy Queen, HealthPartners, Holiday Stationstores, and Toro, and major operations of Pearson, General Dynamics, Seagate Technologies, and Express Scripts are also based in the city.

[11][12] In 1839, with renewed conflict with the Ojibwa 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.

[13] In 1843, Peter and Louisa Quinn, the first European settlers to live in Bloomington, built a cabin along the Minnesota River in the area.

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.

After the Treaty of Traverse des Sioux in 1851, the territory west of the Mississippi River, including Bloomington, was opened to settlers.

The rapid population growth was due in part to the post-World War II boom and subsequent birth of the baby boomer generation.

The effects of this new form of government began immediately, first with the formation of the city police department (at a cost of $2 per taxpayer) and then with the first parkland acquisition.

One of the first policies the council adopted was encouragement of commercial and industrial development, low-cost housing, and shopping centers.

In 1970, Thomas Jefferson High School, Bloomington Ice Garden rink one, and a fourth fire station were built.

In 2019, Bloomington passed an ordinance that forbade filming students of Dar Al-Farooq Islamic Center in a public park, which 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.

The dividing line may be placed as far west as France Avenue, where the high school attendance boundaries meet.

[23] 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.

The Port Authority is responsible for managing development in the South Loop district, in the easternmost part of the city, where the Mall of America is.

The department has 30 fire-fighting vehicles, including pumpers, hook and ladders, specialty units (one vehicle compact enough to navigate the Mall of America's parking ramps), and spares, all of which are equipped with Opticom System equipment, which automatically switches traffic signals to expedite emergency runs.

The officers have Ford Police Interceptor squad SUV's, with each containing a computer-assisted dispatching center that contains a computerized records system, mobile digital terminals that allow officers direct access to warrant information and state motor vehicle and driver's license records, and Opticom System equipment, which automatically switches traffic signals.

[45] The Metro Orange Line, which runs between Burnsville, Minnesota and downtown Minneapolis, finished construction in 2021 and travels through Bloomington on Interstate 35W.

Pearson also created the mural "Science and Nature" in the city's South Loop district, at the Bass Ponds trailhead entrance.

It was inspired, designed, and painted both by the general public and by students from Valley View Middle School, from a gifted program called Nobel, focused on creativity.

WE, a tapestry of murals was curated and produced by Ua Si Creative, and commissioned by the City of Bloomington as part of their creative placemaking efforts; an initiative by the City of Bloomington and the nonprofit arts organization, Artistry, to establish the South Loop as a vibrant, distinctive community.

WE Artists include: Andrés Guzman + Xee Reiter, City Mischief featuring Thomasina Topbear and Tom Jay, Reggie LeFlore, Marlena Myles, Martzia Thometz, and Ua Si Creative.

Also in 2021, The Goldfinch sculpture was installed in South Loop District, by artist Donald Lipski with support from sculptor Christopher Collins, fabricators Yetiweurks and FAST Fiberglass, and project manager John Grant.

Artist Donald Lipski was inspired by the more than 250 species of birds that pass yearly through the nearby, spectacular Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge.

The Government-access television (GATV) channel features City Council and school board meetings, a weekly news magazine show called "Bloomington Today", "Roll Call", a weekly update on public safety news produced by the Bloomington Police Department, arts events, and sports.

Programming on this channel includes Educational-access television content, concerts, choir shows, graduations, and sporting events.

YRU-Up was a late night call-in Public-access television cable TV talk show, airing from 1991 to 2017.

The neighborhood was chosen for its original suburban ranch-style houses and young trees (due to a storm knocking older ones down), giving it a 1960s new-development look.

Bloomington was the point of growth 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 grew to an active statewide player population in excess of 1,500.

Valley View Playfields on the East side contains softball and baseball fields, bocce ball courts, and the Bloomington Family Aquatic Center.