We just talked about spam on that comedy bit. Yeah, I was spam before. Never had spam. My mom like spam. Okay. Now here's the thing about spam. I went to the spam museum in Austin, Minnesota.
We were taking a try to know why we stopped there, but we did. I never had spam in my life. Never saw a can of spam. And I tried it. Now they cooked it there. I loved it. As long as it's cooked, I can't eat raw spam. It grosses me out. But as long as it's cooked and burnt to a crisp, I love it. Yeah, that's what she likes it. Fried in a pan. Yeah, you got to cook it. You can't eat it right out of the can because this guy said this slime all over. It's gross. Okay. So you're running for the fifth can grow a fifth automatic district. Now where is one of the boundaries in this?
People know what we're talking about. Yeah, so it looks a little like a really weird jigsaw puzzle, but it is just north of the zoo. Goes kind of along the lake a little bit, you know, up to Main Street. Kind of towards when point of been and it stopped short of Douglas. And then there's a couple blocks south of Gould. The Jav. So that's the district. Okay. Now I ask this of all people running for office. Why would you want to run for office?
When you're going to really tick off about 50% of the people, no matter what your decision doesn't matter what your decision is, 50% of the people aren't going to like your decision. They're going to get you in the supermarket. You're going to be walking down the other pick and save and they're going to say, Hey, come here. I want to talk about my potholes. Hey, come here. I want to talk you about this thing on the straight. Hey, come here. I want to talk you about this. The loud cars coming down my neighborhood. Why would you want that? Sure. Well, so for me, the reason that I like to do it is there's a couple ones. I really enjoy public service. It's something that I was raised on. My dad was
a state representative. And from a very young age, I got to see that government really can work. You know, he got a stop sign added to a very dangerous intersection in the road part of the county where there had been some really nasty car accidents. And since then, I don't believe there has been a bad car accident at the intersection. And so there's numerous things that I got to see really where you can change people's lives by doing public service. Unfortunately, in today's world, it's gotten very extreme and polarized. But I still believe the government can
work with the right people involved. But really, I, well, got me involved in this race is I really want to protect our public library. There's been some proposed budget cuts that really would have devastated our library. And my wife and I are expecting our first child actually in just a few weeks.
Congratulations. Thank you so much. Yeah, right around the corner. And you get to thinking about is becoming a new dad of what am I going to do with my daughter. And I really got the thinking of I really want to take her to the library. I remember going to story time at a library growing up. I want to take my daughter there.
And these cuts would have just been absolutely devastating for it. And so it was really important for me to get involved, you know, I think far 12 and people say, you know, someone should do something. And I wanted to do something. So that's a big reason. And as far as the
cut the grocery store conversations go, it's happened a few times already. My wife, bless her heart is very good about it. But I really like it because even when we disagree, I believe that we can always work towards getting to a place where even if we disagree on something,
as long as we all share the reasons for a few points, we can try to get to a point where we understand each other and hopefully get to a compromise, which is where the best things can happen.
So you're a nice romantic dinner with your wife at a nice restaurant. You're about to toast a little glass of wine to each other. Somebody comes up, Hey, you know, fix that paho in front of my house right in the middle of the ring. It's going to happen because they're going to recognize you and they're going to say that kind of stuff.
And I have the type of attitude. I'm going to see sit down and shut up. Yeah, that's what I'm going to do. I'm not I'm not I don't kiss up to people in that. And I think in politics, sometimes you have to do that.
I mean, I'm looking at what's going on in Washington. These guys have to kiss up every once in a while. And I know they don't want to.
I couldn't do it. That's why I would never do well and I can kiss up here. This is even politics.
You have to do that. Don't you occasionally going to have to do something you don't want to do? Yeah, I think that's with anything, although with with politics, you have to enjoy parts of it.
I really enjoy the conversations. I think some of the best ideas have come from people that I've been talking to. I've knocked on.
I got to this point. I would say a couple of thousand doors in the district. And I've gotten so many ideas from talking in someone's front porch or talking in their living room at the door.
And so there's so many good ideas that come from it. I think in order to do this job, you have to really like talking to people and hearing their side of the story.
Do you live in the fifth district? I do. Yes. My wife and I would bought our house first house actually on William Street.
Okay. Well, that's nice. Do you have to limit? Do you have to limit your district to represent it? I don't know.
You should. Yes. I think to get sworn in, you do. There's some people play the game of, oh, we're going to move in.
You know, by the time the election happens or whatever it is, but yes, we've been residents for years now and we absolutely love it.
I'm not going to turn myself in, but I will admit to something back in 1968 from my public library where I lived.
I took out an album which the movie soundtrack to buy by birdie took it at never returned it.
Years decades later, I called the library to tell them and they said, well, we don't have records here anymore.
Well, now they do because albums, vinyl is coming back. I wonder if I should call them. Do you want to back?
I mean, it's, it's in the same condition when I took it. Even the library card to tell you this is before they had computers.
They used to put a physical card in the thing and tell you when to return it.
I'm just debating whether to return or not. Now I feel guilty because now they have vinyl and I'm back.
I'm probably on there. There's probably a wanted poster out of the library where I grew up and if you see this man, I'll have to return the album.
So that's the library. Obviously, we're very fortunate to have a great public library and received a huge building.
We have the folks in from the library every every month here and they're always doing a ton of programs.
So yes, you got to protect the library. All right, let's talk about safety.
It's a good thing. You know, I travel 16th Street on the way in in the morning and on the way home I travel 16th.
And we had a horrible, horrible tragedy on 16th Street the other day.
Some idiot was going 90 miles an hour running from the cops smashed into a car and killed one of the occupants in the car.
Three people might of their own business. Now they're in the hospital. One is dead right there on 16th Street.
I mean, you're not going to stop this stuff. And I see on these YouTube videos all the time, people doing bad things.
You can't stop it. Yeah, I think there's things we can do. There's a couple different approaches we can start with to start making it better.
And the first one is painting more of our crosswalks, putting up more crossing signs.
In our district, we always see people walking their dogs, going for a walk to the beach or the zoo or the lake.
And we got kids with them strollers and trying to cross streets like Main Street and Erie and LaSalle.
I mean, you're taking your life in your own hands a bit there.
There are people don't stop. It's sometimes hard to see where the crosswalks are because they're not painted.
There's very few signs. And so I think by doing that, we can hopefully make it a little bit safer to cross the street, which will hopefully slow it on traffic a bit.
But then I think we can get a bit creative. There's those signs that show your speed that you're going at.
They flash. There was one attention. Yeah, absolutely. There's one on Erie in the district.
And I talked to the residents in that area. And they have said that, you know, while someone who's going 90 is probably not going to either A, C or B care.
But if you're going a little bit over, they've seen, they've definitely seen an improvement in traffic.
And I think we can scale this all the way up to, if you've ever heard of something called a road diet, road diets.
Okay. Well, so road diets, they've been doing it in Milwaukee to great success.
And the idea is that sometimes, you know, there's various reasons that people may go too fast on a road.
It may be too wide and subconsciously people think that, oh, I can go faster. I can see everything when you really can't.
You know, these are neighborhoods. Balls run out into streets. Kids are playing. So you really shouldn't be going, you know, 60 miles an hour through a neighborhood.
And so the idea is that you can do things with the road that naturally slow people down.
And so that's where you might have a bump out. They call them or they like instead of speed bumps or speed tables where instead of having the small bump that, you know, shakes the feelings in your mouth when you go over it.
It's a more gradual slope on either side of it. And that's kind of flat on the top.
And so, well, you and I going the speed limit really won't feel it at all.
Someone who is going 90 will see that and have to slow down or about about the car.
I think this guy wasn't going to slow down. That's speed bump. He was going to hit.
I would love to see the lines repainted. Now, this is not even recined as Mount Pleasant.
I'm driving home the other day. It was raining outside. I could even see the lines on the road. They were so faded.
And there's a way to make that. So it's not faded. This is I don't know what kind of paint or stripping it is.
But I couldn't even see the lines on the road. Actually, it was coming back from Union Grove.
We were out there at a high school play.
Just before we take the break, do you know how long those white dots are those lines on the road that divided lines?
Do you know how long they are when you see them on the road to get the white dashes on the road?
No, I don't. How big would you guess?
Oh, I would say two and a half feet.
They are 12 and a half feet long. Wow.
And I heard that and I said, I'm going to measure it.
And I waited till there was no traffic in front of my house. And there it was. It was 12 and a half feet.
And we had somebody from the from Racine.
I forget what the division is here. And they said, yeah, they're all 12 and a half feet long.
And they are. They don't look out. They don't look like the two feet long.
Yeah. And I went out and I measured them. I got a size 13 foot and I measured it and sure enough 12 and a half feet.
Wow. Yeah. I would have never guessed.
But it makes sense. Yeah.
They look so small.
Jen's Jorgensen is here.
He is running for the fifth district Aldermanic seat in Racine.
More with Jen's coming up in the morning.
Jen's Jorgensen. He is running for the fifth Aldermanic district seat currently held by Melissa Caprillian.
You're running against her. So I'm going to ask you something now.
I'm going to say one good thing about Melissa Caprillian that you know about.
And I'm going to ask you, what are you going to do different that she's doing?
Sure. Absolutely.
So one thing that Melissa Caprillian does well is she is involved in the community.
She serves on the city council and the county board. So she holds two seats.
So she keeps herself busy. That's sure.
That's for sure.
Okay.
One thing that I think I can improve upon is really having that community focus.
I've heard it at the doors time and time again that you know when people reach out to their alder.
You know, things may seem like an insignificant problem of, hey, I've got a question on my sidewalk.
I got the green ex on it. It needs to be replaced.
Yeah, went out those green. I see them all over the place.
What does that picture picture sidewalk?
Yeah, it sounds, yep, there is, you know, whether it's tree roots lifting.
I was just talking to a guy at his door yesterday who he was a little concerned and confused because he had quite a few green exes in front of his house.
And so we were talking about sidewalks and it's come up where other folks have had that and they go, you know, I call, but I don't get a response.
And so, you know, my door will always be open, whether it's at the grocery store or give me a call and cell phone, shoot me a text, send me a message on Facebook.
I really enjoy doing this. So I being really accessible because I've said it a couple times, but I truly mean it.
I really believe that a lot of the best ideas come from the people that you serve.
You shouldn't run for this thinking that you have all the answers because you don't who you serve.
It gives you so many good ideas.
I did something which I kind of regret. And if I had to do it all over again, I wouldn't have done it.
We had a guy a neighbor across the street from me parked a box truck in front of my house every day.
And the license plate was expired for two years.
And you can't just leave that on the street, a big box truck.
And I called the authority, called the police. They said, well, if nothing we can do about it.
It's going to expire a license plate.
I told the darn thing away. And they didn't do anything.
And I've never gone to a city council meeting. First time I ever went there.
And I stayed in my case. I said, this box truck is here.
Nobody's removing it. Nobody seems to care about it.
Every time I wake up and look at my door, there's the big box truck parked in front of my house.
I said, here's what I'm going to do.
I called my nards. And I'm going to rent their box truck.
And we're going to pick one name from all the city alderman.
I'm going to pick one out of the hat. And I'm parking in front of your house for the entire summer.
And there's nothing you could do about it.
Because the license plate will be up to date.
I'm going to pay for the entire summer.
So if that box truck is still there next week, I'm writing your names on a piece of paper
where you're put in the bowl, pick one out and enjoy your summer with that box truck in front of your house.
Box truckers removed the next day.
I hated doing that. I hated doing that after I did it.
And it was on that car 25 television, too, as everybody was wanting it.
I hated doing that, but I didn't know what else to do to get my city to respond.
I get this box truck out of my house.
And I hate to threaten people.
But when I make a thread, I follow through on it.
And I check with the nards to rent one.
So I was all set for the summer.
No, absolutely.
And that's just it.
I really feel like being really accessible, calling people back, responding to emails.
It's so important.
Because everyone has things that, you know, impacts their daily lives, like that box truck.
I completely understand, especially if it's expired tags.
I mean, 100%.
Well, you shouldn't be parking on the street all day.
First of all, it was on the wrong side of the street every time.
You know, he spoke to alternate among where I live.
He didn't do that.
Oh, yeah.
The police didn't seem to care.
Yeah, it's so unfortunate.
You know, they have so many things going on.
And that's really where Alderman can help is, you know, being so accessible where he'd see me walk in my dog, flag me down and come over and say,
I got this issue.
And I'd love to hear it.
I'd love to talk about it and go right, go get to work right away to kind of be that liaison.
You know, I said to the cops, I said, I know you got a crime spree murders and everything.
But what about this box truck?
Let's get this out.
I know you're busy with that.
I know there's a crime spree going on now.
There's stores being robbed.
There's murders all over there.
What about this box truck?
Let's get this.
I know it was a big nothing, but it bothered me.
Okay, let's talk about improving infrastructure.
Everybody says they're going to do it.
And then the president Trump last term, the term before he said, we're going to infrastructure week.
He didn't fix one pothole.
So infrastructure.
Sure.
It says they're going to do it, but they never fix it.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
And so on that one, I'm proud to say that I have been a part of fixing infrastructure here.
I serve as the Water Works Commission president right now.
And I am very excited to say that this coming year, we have one of the largest amounts of lead laterals that we're going to be removing.
And we're seeing this history.
It's a massive amount, massive undertaking.
We did quite a few this past year.
If you were driving on North Main Street, remember all the construction.
That was a street work as well as.
It's nice now.
Yeah, it's very nice and nice and smooth.
And in that section, no lead laterals.
So very exciting.
And that's something new that we're really trying to work on with the water department.
And that is previously there was a program you could call the water department.
Get on the list, try to do this ad hoc thing to have your lead laterals removed.
And now when we open up a street for street work, street repair.
We're also doing sewer and water work at that same time.
Doing some cost savings.
We're able to lump stuff together.
You always hear it on TV, you bundle your, you know, cable and internet.
Well, we're bundling your street repair sewer repair and water repair together to make it more efficient, timely and cost effective for everyone involved.
And so that's that's a big one for me.
It's very important that we are removing lead from our drinking system.
Hey, the last minute here.
Give a pitch for yourself.
Only as a free commercial.
Go do it now.
Absolutely.
Well, thank you so much.
And thank you for having me on to it.
Really appreciate it.
I just wanted to say to the folks in the fifth district, I really, really hope that you give me a shot.
I'd love to earn your vote.
If you have any questions for me, I've said it numerous times today.
But please, my door is always open.
My phone is always on.
Give me a call, send me a text.
I'd love to really start working to improve recene and improving our daily lives.
So I'd be honored to be your next alderman.
Thank you, Jen.
Thanks for coming in this morning.
And we've discovered that Jen's is not short for anything.
Nope.
Yeah, Jen's.
Yeah, Jen's Jorgensen.
And the Danish hour, in this case, the Danish half hour was back for a bit this morning.
We always get people asking when you can bring back the Danish hour.
Well, then the guy died about 30, 40 years ago.
We're probably not going to do it.
Well, if I'm a lecture, you'll be able to bring the Danish hour back.
The Danish spirit.
It was here on WRJ.
And thank you, Jen's for coming in.
Jen's Jorgensen.
He's running for the Aldermanic district in the fifth district.
And the election is April 1st.
