To her credit, when comedian Paula Poundstone visited the Bloomington (IL) Center for the Performing Arts in April, she declined to make fun of the name of Bloomington’s sister city, Normal. (She was less restrained when it came to the village of Downs.) But really, why would she? Every possible joke about the city has long been the virtually exclusive domain of fifth graders: the only people who might consider such humor fresh.
From a Peoria perspective (and I’ll throttle the next person who brings up the phrase “Will it play…”), there’s a lot to like about Normal: it still has a downtown, it’s home to Illinois State University and its mayor owns Vitesse Cycle Shop.
Chris Koos likes to see what other communities are doing right, too. Recently, he traveled to Madison, Wisconsin, and tried out B-cycle, the bicycle-sharing system found in Boulder, Colorado, Des Moines, Iowa, and several other American cities. His initial comment on Facebook?
“Test driving the B Cycle bike sharing system. Our town soon?”
Gee, a central Illinois mayor interested in transportation diversity. Is that Normal?
Wouldn’t it be neat if it were?
16incheswestofpeoria 
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