MUNCIE — Have you had trouble with one of Muncie's roving bands of "vicious-looking white children?"
No? Well, according to the online Urban Dictionary, that's one of many unflattering things that Muncie is known for.
Then there's the Judgmental Map of Muncie, in which the southeastern quarter of the community is labeled, METH, METH, METH, METH, WALMART WHERE THE GUY LEFT A METH BACKPACK, METH ...
There's plenty of unflattering online comments about most cities to go around. You can find a Judgmental Map about almost any city you can name.
And for every crass comment, there's probably a compliment out there on the Internet.
But can a community that has led the country in meth lab raids transform its online image to a technologically progressive, entrepreneur-friendly city?
That's what the people behind the efforts to win "Smart City" status for Muncie are hoping.
Fame and judgments for Muncie
Most know by now that Muncie was the unnamed typical small American city in the Middletown sociological studies in the 1920s and 1930s. The studies spawned not only the "Middletown" documentary series — looking at aspects of Muncie life — on PBS in 1982 but countless TV and newspaper examinations on how Muncie residents feel about the economy, presidential elections and events on the national and international levels.
Muncie's fame also prompted sometimes serious, sometimes humorous mentions from Steven Spielberg's "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" to "The X-Files."