Welcome to the Grain Belt: Gainful Employment is Glorious

Hello, everyone! I have spent the past week taking photos on my way to work, during my lunch break, and on my way home at the end of the day. The purpose of this week's efforts was to give you an impression of what I see on the way to work each day and what my work environment is like.

I have been working as a research analyst with the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities (MnSCU) system for just over a month. I am employed in an office for institutional research at Minneapolis Community and Technical College, just on the edge of downtown Minneapolis. The job has been fascinating so far. My department receives research requests on a daily basis from other departments. Requesting departments are generally seeking statistical information on some aspect of the college, either for an educational initiative, planning, budgeting, or reporting to the state government. As an analyst, I help the requesting departments develop their research questions, then I retrieve the data from our database, and perform analysis on the data before reporting to the department from which the request originated.

Working in the public rather than the private sector has been quite a change. Being a state employee, I am represented by a professional union (so that conservative politicians can't do away with our health benefits), and I get excellent health benefits: the state actually pays for my entire health insurance premium! In addition, I am actually able to leave the office at 5:00 or 5:30 pm if my work is finished, and there is no pressure to stay later (unless there is something very urgent). My office is much more laid back than I am used to, but it is a very welcome change. I also really enjoy working with other data nerds :-)

Since the weather has been dry here, I either bike or walk to and from work every day. The distance from my apartment to the college campus is only about 1.5 miles, so I am very lucky that I don't have to drive like most people. Here are some pictures of my morning route:

Bike path past Walker Art Museum

Walker - a center for modern art

View of Lyndale Avenue with pedestrian/bicycle bridge and Basilica in the background

Neat bike bridge which I get to use every day!

Just your normal morning commute

Neat bridge which I unfortunately do not get to use.

Not having to drive in this lovely traffic every day makes me feel
like I'm not really part of the rat race.

Highways with St. Mary's Basilica and downtown Minneapolis in the background

The last part of my morning walk/bike ride takes me through Loring Park, which borders on the college campus. Though it is a beautiful park with gardens, tennis/basketball/shuffleboard courts, and several bodies of water, like many city parks, it has a certain attraction for vagrant people. So when I travel through the park around 8:00 every morning, the homeless people are usually just waking up. I therefore generally go along the edge of the park.

The building in which my office is located is not modern like the majority of the college's buildings. Instead, my office and the buildings around it are old brick industrial buildings, restored from the days when grain was still milled along the Mississippi River in downtown Minneapolis.

Alleyway leading to my office building

Cafe Lurcat, a French restaurant around the corner from my office

Area originally called "Loring Corners"

My office on the right; Saint Mary's Basilica in the background

The beige brick building is my office building

Entrance to my office

Another view of Cafe Lurcat with skyscrapers in the background

The rooftop terrace of Joe's Garage, which I can see out my window

The college campus is for the most part very modern, and the buildings are connected by skyways. The skyways allow students to travel from building to building without going outside - very important for Minnesota winters.