By: Jacob Wheeler, UpTake Reporter

Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) News set up shop and broadcast live at the University of Minnesota Urban Research and Outreach-Engagement Center (U-ROC) Tuesday for the one-year anniversary of the North Minneapolis tornado. The live show wasn’t entirely unprecedented — MPR News broadcasted live from Des Moines for the Iowa Caucuses earlier this year; it will do so again from the Democratic and Republican National Conventions, in Charlotte and Tampa, respectively, this summer.

But giving this much coverage to North Minneapolis — the Twin Cities most disparate neighborhood — was unique.

“We thought it would be a great opportunity to get out into the community, meet people face to face and take the temperature of a community that’s both healing and reeling from the tornado still,” said MPR News program director Steve Nelson.

“This event had a big impact on North Minneapolis. Minnesota Public Radio News covered it from the start, and we wanted to come back a year later and see yow everything was progressing. Our goal with doing this broadcast was to look at what’s happening that’s been good, look at what still needs to happen, and remember what happened over the course of the year. We’ve put together a slew of coverage on our website. We’re presenting a lot of it here today with the community.”