Pawnee, Indiana is the fictional setting for Parks and Recreation. It is located 90 miles from Indianapolis and 35 miles past Bloomington and is the state's seventh-largest city. Pawnee is a city with low operating costs and a large labor pool. Legend has it, Reverend Howell chose "Pawnee" as the name for the city accidentally - a functional illiterate, he tried to write "Paradise" on the city charter and his scrawls were misinterpreted.