Thank you for eight great years!

After sitting empty for the majority of the past seven years, the City of Rochester will soon release a request for proposals for organizations that wish to reactivate the 93-year-old facility.

While the City Council plans to address The Landing's request to stick around until April 2022 at its meeting on August 2, a broader conversation has started between council members, Olmsted County commissioners, and the leaders of nonprofits like The Landing to overhaul the long-term strategy to support people who need help the most.

On this edition of the Rundown, two members of the Minnesota Legislature — one from each chamber, one from each party, both representing Rochester — join us to give their thoughts on what happened in the latest legislative session. The session ended on Wednesday, after lawmakers signed off on a $52 billion budget bill covering the state's bills for the next two years — including new guidelines on police reform, extra funding for education and child care, and a $250 million bonus package for frontline workers.

Inside a tucked-away building in the shadow of the Maven on South Broadway, a dozen Rochester Public Schools high schoolers spent their school year building their own businesses. Yes, it was for school credit, but this was no class project — the ideas are real, the businesses are real, and the funds they are raising are definitely real.

On this edition of the Rundown, we take you on a tour through Rochester's five breweries, collectively comprising a 'beer scene' that's earned much regional acclaim since the first Med City-brewed pint in 90 years was poured in 2012. It's likely that you've been to at least one of the five breweries in the past (or at least heard of them), but with the pandemic ending and an exciting summer ahead, it's time for a refresher to figure out what's on tap.

On this week’s edition of the Rochester Rundown, presented by Altra Federal Credit Union, Isaac reports from the field — more specifically, Schmitt Field at the Olmsted County History Center, where the Rochester Roosters will play their 25th season of 1860-style base ball this summer.

On this special Thursday edition of the Rochester Rundown, Isaac talks with two RPS art teachers who were recognized by their peers for going above and beyond during distance learning. The shuttering of in-person class brought numerous traditions and projects to a halt, but Tiffany Erie and Lisa Becker — both art teachers, albeit for different age groups — found their own ways to give students opportunities to express themselves.

Officers, administrators, and board members all agree that police should have some role in the school environment, but after hearing students raise concerns over having a fully-armed officer in their learning environment, changes to the SRO program may be on the horizon.

This week on the podcast, we bring you the story surrounding a great blue heron rookery in southwest Rochester, where neighbors and concerned citizens in the area have thrown a potential housing development into question. The first flurry of activity has led to hundreds of signatures on a petition, hours of debate on the county level, and an uncertain future for a development that’s been in the planning stages for years.

This year’s list goes through the heart of the Rochester music scene — no matter the genre, there is a local artist trying their hand at it. We reached out to local recording studios and music-makers to see who they were excited for, while doing research of our own — scouring DIY music sites like Soundcloud and Bandcamp to see who spent the past year releasing new music, priming themselves for an exciting summer of 2021.

Today on the Rochester Rundown, we check in with the students behind the Rochester Community Initiative. The group came together in the wake of the George Floyd protests last June, and has since grown in size and stature, adding roughly three dozen new members and creating programs for students and the general public alike. Their work revolves around advocating for youth representation and uplifting marginalized voices, and in recent months, their outreach has expanded into RPS classrooms beyond their own.

As the proportion of Minnesota residents to receive at least one vaccine dose approaches 25 percent, Gov. Tim Walz released sweeping rollbacks to Covid-19 restrictions Friday morning. Businesses like restaurants, gyms and salons can welcome more people into their shops, but perhaps the biggest changes came for large entertainment venues, which will be able to welcome thousands of people for sporting events and concerts in the near future.

We have heard many voices on the debate over reopening schools: frustrated parents, worried teachers, administrators, and board members looking for a solution — but on this week’s show, we are giving the spotlight to the students. Specifically, we hear from four RPS high schoolers, who have been in distance learning since last March. We get their thoughts on the district’s re-opening plan and the recent announcement from Gov. Walz that may upend everything, plus how they’ve adapted to the new learning model and spending a year away from their teachers and friends.

How did things get like this, where a house gets snapped up by a feeding frenzy of buyers within hours of hitting the market? It’s partly thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic, but not entirely — more a multitude of factors that have been coalescing since the end of the Great Recession.

Olmsted County Public Health, with assistance from Mayo Clinic and Olmsted Medical Center, is taking over the RCTC Field House for two days this week, with the goal of giving out 2,300 vaccines to some of the last Phase 1A health care workers still waiting on a vaccination.

On today's episode of the Rochester Rundown, Isaac chats with Annie Mack — one of the city’s most powerful and well-known music makers — about her first new multi-track release in four years, an EP titled Testify that hit streaming services Friday. Included in this episode: her thoughts on releasing new music in a pandemic, what she wants people to take away from her EP, and her lasting connection to Rochester.

This week on the Rundown, Isaac sits down for a socially-distanced conversation with new City Administrator Allison Zelms, who assumed office earlier this week. In this week's show, we'll hear her thoughts on transitioning the city out of the pandemic and the future of downtown, plus her goals for her first months in the new position.

On this special holiday edition of the Rochester Rundown, we hear from the 10 local musicians who contributed to the Think Ahead Olmsted song contest, put on by Med City Beat and Olmsted County Public Health.