We've got some races coming up, political races, and we've got a couple in Racine because
the even aldermen are up for reelection, even in eyes like the old, when you get the,
when they had the gas shortage, even in odd license plates, something like that. And running
in the 12th district, or this, you want to challenge the incumbent in the 12th district
is Rocco de Mark. And thanks for joining us here this morning.
Thank you for having me. And I ask everybody who runs for office, why do you want to do
it? I don't see the upside to it. Maybe I'm just missing it. Maybe you can tell me.
Well, I never really thought about running 100%. The reason why I want to run is because
I want the community to have more of a community engagement. And I want more development
into the community, especially when it comes down to the roads. I mean, I live down
a street from here. And I agree with you. The roads are pretty bad. I mean, for weeks,
it's just ice. There's a couple times where I had to stop and I was sliding right past
the stop sign. I got news for you. I go out there all the time. Just get some fresh sharing
between some of the brakes. Nobody stops at that stop sign of victory. They go blow
right through it or they make an attempt. You see the brake lights come up, but they just
cruise right through it. I think it's a matter of time for someone gets hit. Not going
to get killed, but they could, you know, they can have a car accident there because I
see it all the time. Oh, yeah. I have a couch that faces a picture window and I see it
all the time. It's like, I always have like an inner like bed to myself. Like, are they
going to stop or they couldn't keep going? So see most people watch Netflix. You watch
the stop sign. Well, I mean, I do have an Netflix. Go out of back. I just see it. Go
right past. So it's just, you tell your friend, hey, come on over. We're going to watch
the stop sign tonight. Come on. Let's place bets. How many people are going to run through
it? Come on. Right now, place your bets. Um, I, I understand there are a lot of streets.
There are limited snow plows. You got us plow where the most cars are and victory
avenues. Not a major thoroughfare. I get all that. I live on a main street. So I'm constantly
being plowed, which adds it's, you know, draw it down too, because now you plow the
tree of trouble your driveway. Plow check comes by. It comes right again. And I understand
that I get it. If you know, it's annoying, but I get it. Um, it's where you're from originally.
I'm born and raised here in a routine. I local yoke. Look at that. I ride. Um, you
ever do much traveling outside of a scene? Oh, yeah. Uh, 2017. I did go to Italy and my
grandma actually came from Hungary in 1956. So there's been several times where I met my
family in, um, Hungary and, uh, Tilti fold. Oh, look at you. World traveler. Okay. What
do you go to high school? Park high school? Or Panthers? Or Panthers? Oh, yeah. Go, go,
go. Rah, Rah, Rah. All right. That's pretty good. And, um, so would you, would you, do you
go to college at all? I went to local college, uh, gateway technical college. Well, you did
everything in local. Oh, yeah. I love rescuing. That's the thing. Yeah. Okay. So, uh, what
do you study in college? Um, I was going for HVAC, uh, associate, but then I received my
boiler license, which then I started working at Racine Unified. Oh, that's right. Yeah. That's
how you HVAC. It's like air conditioning and all that stuff right here. Air, um, heating
air and conditioning. Okay. Yeah. Although that's where you work now at the, uh, Racine Unified.
Yeah. I'm, uh, one of the maintenance people. I'm actually the head engineer at, uh,
just that at your home. Well, so, and that's yet to use your college degree for that.
Your college education. Yeah. A little bit. Yeah. I majored in geology and college did
me no good. But I love studying it. And I've been doing this ever since, but I love the
study of geology. So I went to Hofstra University, which by the way is in the NCAA tournament
playing Alabama this weekend, go Hofstra, the flying Dutchman. And so, okay. Well, that's
good. All right. So, uh, what's wrong with the 12th district that you want to fix? Well,
the thing is it's mostly the community engagement, you know, doing doors. I keep hearing from
people. Um, I don't know who my older man is. And there isn't any, like, engagement
with the community. And I've been in this area for about six years. Um, I moved in back
in 21. Um, I used to live by Douglas Terrace on the north side and then, um, over by NAP growing
up. And, um, I, I have, I remember being on over by NAP. And there was always some kind
of community involvement with, uh, the alderman over there. But I never really hear anything
in this district. And that's the thing that I feel like we need some type of like listening
session, not listening session, but you know, like where the alderman lets everyone know,
like what's going on with the city. And I haven't really heard that. So, um, I would love
to have the community come together and talk about issues that, you know, bothers them.
Okay. And, uh, do you see anything going wrong in this district that you want to fix right
away? Well, uh, development, really. Um, now we're there for people who know the 12th district
goes where? Do you know the boundaries of it off? And oh, yeah. So it goes all the way out to,
I think the furthest point is paneras, um, Kinsey and over by, um, laythrupp. Those are the
boundaries. Uh, we have like a school, uh, Starbucks, uh, middle or complex now.
Rocco DeMarcar, I guess this morning, he is running for the 12th older district here in
Racine. The election is April 7th. I'm so confused on these dates because there were primaries
coming up for other offices and August and the general election. And I get so confused.
I'm lucky. I remember my birthday and the groundhog day. If I remember those, I think I'm okay.
I didn't know that Denmark's bar is, uh, was a family bar. Yeah. It was my grandpa's bar.
Yeah. It's on Douglas. Uh, no, Albert in North Morale. Yeah, then North Morale. Yep.
Denmark's bar. I didn't know that was you. So there you go. You got a direct tie to, uh,
Racine. A little bit. Forever. Okay. That'll always be known. Okay. So let's talk about, um,
you would tell me we were just suggesting during the commercial break there. A lot of empty lots
and you want some development now. A stirred of it just lost a couple of businesses recently.
They did. And I'm sure you would like to bring business to Racine because we have some
beautiful empty lots right on the lakefront. I mean, where the walker manufacturing used to be.
It's just sitting there and the rabbits and the, uh, groundhogs are running all around there.
I'm sure we'd like to do something with it. So give us some plans that, yeah,
where we'd like to bring economic development. Well, I think the city needs to do a little bit more,
um, reinvestment into the community when it comes down to that, you know, I know that the city
knocked down a couple of houses and we need to put houses back in those lots to have more people
come to Racine. Racine is a beautiful place. I mean, we have the lake. We have the cleanest
waters. We're rated number one when it comes down to drinking water. Our beaches are fantastic.
I mean, you go down to Kenosho or Milwaukee or surrounding areas.
Um, we have sand. The other places have rocks and I think, I think I, I rather have sand and rocks.
Well, and, you know, we, um, former mayor, uh, John Dickert, and now deals with water and so forth.
And he always is touting that. He said, this is the best water. Oh, yeah.
Best drinking water. I know enough. This position to do something with the water of, yeah,
the great lakes. Yeah. Yeah. So, and he is so pro. Well, I'd,
every, you have to be pro water because you got to drink it to survive. But yeah, he said tap
water is the best. So my wife fills up her water. Just big water jug. We go down to petrified
springs as she fills it up with that aquifer water, which I don't like it. But he also says,
that's good water. It's, it's natural water from the aquifer. And I, she drinks it all. That's
all she drinks. And I don't, she's alive. I know a few people actually do that. So it's not the
big jugs. It's free. You get down there and you bring your containers and you can fill up all
you wanted. There's no end to it that I know of. So that's good. Okay. So, um, you're running
in the 12th district. Give a pitch to people. What, why should they vote for you now? You're
opponent of the Henry Perez. He's been there many, many years. Yes. In his, in this position.
Why change? Well, I think that, um, I think that the problem with what's going on right now is
the distance, there's such a disconnect between the citizen and common council. Right now,
all the seats, all the older seats are being contested. And that shows how much people are very
jaded with what's going on. Um, I want to get in. I want to bring the community together. I want
to do the people's work. Um, I want the city to thrive. I want people to, uh, eat, play and
grow here. And I wanted to attract more people to this community. You know, with the rail system
that, um, is in talks right now between Kenosha, Racine and Milwaukee. That's been in talks now
since I moved to Wisconsin in 1980. Oh, I remember since I was a kid here in that. So it's just,
it's just so, I feel like that would bring so many more jobs, so many more people to the,
the community. I mean, you have people living in Chicago and, you know, they're commuting from
Wisconsin to, uh, Chicago. I think if we expand that a little bit more up to Racine, we can grow the
city and do more with what we have. Um, you'll have those, what do they call those town hall meetings
or your big fan of those? Oh, yeah. I think it's a very good way of bringing the community together
because, um, they, people need to be heard. That's the thing. And when the people aren't being heard,
you know, the leaders don't know how to do things. They just do whatever they want.
I do town hall meetings. I don't think they're, I mean, they go back, you know, to the
planning of this country, but I don't remember them up until the last decade or so. I don't
remember it's going to town hall meetings, but all of a sudden it became a big thing where people
can voice their opinions. Sometimes people laugh at those things, but hey, people have gripes and,
you know, they want to be heard and not everybody's in control there temper, but at least you get
to know what people are thinking. Hey, there's a one senator that I remember that would always have
a town hall on Thursday outside of Wisconsin. Um, and I thought that was a great thing because,
you know, not just to isolate yourself in one little area, you're listening to everyone in the
whole country. So I think community, community engagement is the number one thing that we need.
Have you talked to any of it? Well, you doorknocking, right? You went door to door. What's the
biggest complaint? Did you hear people complain about anything? Well, it's mostly roads and trash.
You know, that's the thing. People are, you know, that's the thing about garbage. We had a guy who
lived across the street from me. He was in his 90s and I didn't put my trash can out till he
was out. Everybody in the neighborhood looked for Dave. When Dave puts his garbage can out,
that's when I'm putting mine out because he was the guy he always kept track of the garbage.
And the garbage was his life. This is how I'm going. And so we did that. Then he passed away.
And I became the person they started looking forward to when Don puts his garbage while
but my garbage. But the city's got that thing now on your phone. They text you when you're
talking about your garbage. Yeah, that. And I told everyone to download the app because that is
like a saving grace with what's going on. You know, surrounding communities, they don't have what
we have. And it just doesn't make really much sense to, you know, have a holiday and then now
your whole entire routine is all screwed up. Well, they never used to do that. They had it when
it was on Tuesdays. It was on Tuesdays for life. Oh, yeah. Now every holiday, they, you know,
move it around. The other day came up with a snow emergency was on there and I live on a main
artillery street, arterial street. And it gets cars off the street for the next two days.
And a lot of people didn't know. So the cop cars had the lights flashing out my window and
they were ticketing or whatever they were doing, getting these cars off the street. And I said,
how do people know if there's a snow emergency? I mean, if they don't have a newspaper,
listen to the radio and they don't have that app, how are they supposed to know? Nobody
comes knocking on their door. So the only thing I could think of is when you see it snowing outside,
you know something's up. Call the city. They'll tell you everybody's got a phone or a connection to
the city in some way or another way. But I don't know how people know that. I mean, it's a
difficult one because now a lot of people are very in tune when it comes on to that. I think the
app is a great thing. But it's not an app. It's just it's it's a text thing they give me. Yeah.
They text me the garbage every week and with a snow emergency. There's also an app that the city
has where it tells you like all the holiday. Yeah. Well, I get that when I pay my taxes,
they give you that sheet in the mail and with all the holidays. So I got that. But every time there's
a garbage pick up four o'clock in the afternoon, you can tell it with time to text you. I got four
o'clock. Don pack up your garbage, take it out to the curb. Come on. And I do it. And it's a good
little service tab because it reminds me it's garbage day. Everybody loves talking about garbage.
What was the other thing you said garbage and roads, roads. Yes, roads. I know this. I know
this isn't your problem. But when Melissa Caprily was in here, she's on the county board. I say,
we got to talk about spring street. That thing is a mess. I'm either going to pop a kidney or an
axle on spring street. I'm just going to come out first. And now they got those barrels. There's
like a slalom going down spring. I know they're doing work. I understand. I get all that stuff.
But the street itself is from pretty bad shape. I mean, bump, bump, bump, bump, bump, bump,
going down spring street by highway 31. All right. I'm going to give you a free commercial.
Normally we charge for this stuff, but I'm going to give you a free pitch here. You have 30 seconds.
Go tell the people they should vote for Rockwell to mark. I think that as an alderman, I want,
like I've been saying throughout this whole interview, I want more community engagement.
I want more re-investment into the city so that we can bring in more businesses and more
people into the community. We need to rehab the buildings that we have. Receives more landlocked
than anything else. So we have to do what we will we have. And I think that in order for
receive to thrive, I think we need a change. Okay. There you go. Rockwell to mark. It's on the
ballot for the 12th Aldermanic District. The election is April 7th. And also I want to bring
this up to early voting starts March 24th. So you can go to your to well to the city hall and
vote over there on March 24th. My wife and I like to vote on election day. Just something about
being election day. My mother I used to bring for early voting because she was in a wheelchair at
the end, but not like election day. It's kind of exciting. I used to, when my grandma was alive,
I used to take her all the time to the polling places. Yeah. Yeah. It elections to me is a very
close to me because my grandma came from Hungary and she was under communist rule and she was always
saying, you know, you got one thing in this country that's vote. Vote and you can complain. If you
don't vote, you can't complain. We have tried to get voting complain. That's two things you can't do
over there. Can you? No. All right. Thanks for joining us. Good luck. Rockwell to mark. Thank you.
For the 12th Aldermanic District. The election is April 7th. Early voting is March 24th.
Okay.