If you don't live in, or drive through, or visit North City, it's easy not to know it's there.

The boarded up windows, the debris filled lots, the generations of families who have shaped and backed our city feeling unseen and unheard.

Many residents say that gap between what's visible and what's actually happening is part of what's been hardest.

Welcome to City Hall.

St.

Louis, our neighbors, city workers, community partners, and protesters.

And protesters.

Welcome to City Hall tonight.

That frustration boiled into public view earlier this year during the mayor's State of the City address when community members interrupted Mayor Spencer's speech, demanding urgency and visibility for neighborhoods still waiting to recover.

It is clear to me and it's clear to everyone in this space that our city is coming from a place of hurt, that our city is in pain.

It includes lifetimes of disinvestment and a lifetime of work ahead of us.

- City leaders claim delays weren't due to inaction, but to months of back and forth with FEMA and the Missouri State Emergency Management Agency, particularly over who was responsible for removing debris.

Requests reportedly went unanswered for weeks at a time.

Plans were rewritten and the city hesitated to move forward without clarity on which costs would actually be reimbursed.

In the meantime, residents stayed surrounded by reminders of loss.

Now, city officials claim St.

Louis is entering a new phase of cleanup.

Plans are in place to demolish roughly 300 unsafe tornado-damaged buildings over the next several months, a sharp increase from the roughly 40 demolished in the year immediately after the storm.

More funding is also reported to become available.

A $100 million state relief package is aimed at homeowners who don't qualify for FEMA assistance.

And the mayor continues pushing to use a portion of the RAM settlement funds for North City recovery, reigniting longstanding and deeply divided debates over how those dollars should be spent.

But for many families, rebuilding isn't just about demolition timelines or funding streams.

It's about stability and staying connected to their community.

The tornado damaged 12 St.

Louis public school buildings, forcing seven schools to close and displacing about 2000 students.

Three schools have since reopened, but four remain closed, with some students not expected to return until 2027, if they return at all.

In that gap, community groups have carried much of the load, providing meals, housing support and day-to-day help, doing much of the heaviest lifting since day one.

Still, residents tell us recovery can't be measured only in cleared lots or signed contracts.

It's about whether people feel seen, whether they feel prioritized, and whether North City's future feels like a shared responsibility or an afterthought.

One year later, St.

Louis may no longer consider itself in crisis, but for many in North City, healing is still very much unfinished.