Yeah, look who we have here 12th district all their Rocco de Mark.
Thanks for joining us.
Thank you for having me when your parents named you Rocco They kind of set your pace for your life.
You had to be the tough guy in school Rocco.
I mean Donald is not a tough guy Rocco can beat anybody up in the school.
Is that about it?
Well, I mean, I'm a very pessimistic person.
So I'm not really not pessimistic, but I'm very past
Passive, passive, passive, passive,
passive, passive,
passive, passive, passive, passive, passive, passive, passive, passive, passive, passive, passive, passive, passive, passive, passive, passive, passive, passive, passive, passive, passive, passive, passive, passive, passive, passive,
passive, passive, passive, passive, passive, passive, passive, passive, passive, passive, passive, passive, passive, passive, passive, passive, passive, passive, passive, passive, passive, passive, passive,
passive, passive,
passive, passive, passive, passive, passive, passive, passive, passive, passive, passive, passive, passive, passive, passive, passive, passive, passive, passive,
passive, passive, passive, passive, passive, passive, passive, passive, passive, passive, passive, passive, passive, passive, passive, passive, passive, passive, passive, passive, passive, passive, passive, passive, passive, passive, passive, passive, passive, passive, passive, passive, passive, passive, passive, passive, passive
All right.
Well, I guess I'm not that.
It's also Luca Brotsi.
That name never scared me until I saw him and see what somebody did.
All right.
So your 12th district all this your first four ring into politics, right?
Yes.
We like it so far.
I love it.
I love talking with the constituents.
I actually did a walk through just randomly talk or talking to people two weeks ago.
and I have notes and I'm working on speeding on, I just want to remind everyone, on Perry Avenue, I am working on a solution for the speeders on there.
Oh!
You know what I'm gonna do when I retire?
I figure I'm gonna do it.
My wife said to me, what do you do with your life when you retire?
I'm getting a beach chair.
I'm gonna sit here in the corner on Victory Avenue, where that stop sign is.
I'm gonna have a clicker and click how many people run that stop sign all day long.
I go out every once in a while to get some fresh air, get rid of the...
Stale air I'll go and get some fresh air and they go right through that side They didn't make some of them don't even make an attempt to hit the brakes They just go through it and the problem is it's not a four-way stop So if another car or a bus is coming, they're gonna slam you and you're done.
You're done So yeah, and I live on Main Street talk about speeders.
Oh And what when did they start with these loud mufflers on the car?
When did that all start?
I know that was a thing back in like the 60s and 70s really
But I mean, I remember from my godfather, he always talked about like how the cops would pull you over and then have like some kind of device listening to it.
And if it was over a certain decibel, you got like a fine.
So I don't know about that one.
I don't know.
I know
motorcycles.
All right.
That's part of the motorcycle sound.
Yeah.
But these cars, I'll hear them in the middle of the night, especially on the weekends and living on Main Street.
You hear that all the time.
Get used to it.
It's like living near the beach.
You hear the ocean all the time, but still.
All right, let's talk about it.
You had a meeting, didn't you?
Recently, a long one,
I
heard.
Yeah, last night we had a long one.
I think it went till almost 11 o'clock.
Oh, wow.
Past your bedtime.
All right.
That's why I have my caffeine over here.
What did you drink there?
Oh,
monster tea.
Oh, you drank monster, okay.
Yeah.
I used the a little five-hour energy when I got up.
Oh, that's too much.
Really?
Five-hour energy?
It's just vitamins B6 and B12.
That's all it is.
All right, let's talk about some of the things that you're meeting here.
Before we get to the top one, flock cameras.
Now, that's a lot in the news lately, flock cameras.
Did they have to get rid of them in Racine?
I believe in 30 days, we have a deal with them where we're going to cancel them.
We're giving a window for the police department to download whatever data is on those.
So if there's any type of, for current open, I can't think of the word.
open cases.
They can look back onto those.
So give us the pros and cons of flock cameras.
Now we heard all about it.
There were people, some police in the news who abused it.
They were spying on their exes and whatever.
So give us the pros and cons.
Well, I know the police department was giving a demo to Alderman's and I was one of those.
And they showed me the policies and all that.
Right now, you have to go through channels to actually get to that system.
You have to have a case number.
You have to have a reason.
They have a audit system.
So every so often, I think once a week, they hit the audit button and they figure out like, wait a second, why does this officer looked at this when there's no case?
That's how they caught the guys.
Yes, that's how they caught the two officers.
They had an audit button.
They figured it out and they were pulled aside.
The other thing is, I mean, this is the major tool for the police department to close cases.
I mean, it's just a tip.
It's not like it's videotaping anyone.
It just takes a snapshot of the cars going by.
Yeah, let's talk about how it works.
Now, there have been cameras for years.
I mean, I was watching an old Colombo episode, and this is from the early 70s, and they stopped pictures of cars going by.
They use them at toll booths all the time.
They stopped pictures.
What makes the plot cameras any different?
Is it the data they store?
I
think the problem is, is the evasion of privacy and where that data is going.
That ship has sailed invasion of privacy.
We're way past that
now.
I mean, we have our cell phones.
We have our smart devices inside the houses.
Even our TVs are listening to us.
But the problem there is we we signed up for those things.
And I get that we signed up for these phones.
We sign up for social media and we buy these things knowing that that's happening.
This right here is not really known at the time.
That's a good point.
Yeah.
Yeah.
We
didn't sign up for flock cameras.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Twenty twenty two.
I think that's when they started it.
There was not a lot of things about that.
We know that was a camera.
We know that the police used it for crimes, for cases and all that good stuff.
But now with the data centers, where that data is going towards.
Now, my issue with Flock is where is that data going to?
From my understanding, it's going to a data server out in Virginia using, I believe, Amazon server system.
I think we should have control over our data.
I think we should have the data here in Racine and Lockdown where we have control over it I know that there are some other cases in the the country where other police departments are looking at like in Like in Texas they're looking at our cameras because they want to catch certain crimes.
That's illegal in that state I don't believe that should
be willy-nilly open to everyone.
I think that they should be calling up either the police chief or someone in the city to asking them, hey, we have this crime right here.
Can we use your cameras?
That's what I believe in.
I've talked with other community leaders that switched from Flock to Axon and that's their number one thing that they say is
We need to hold that data.
We need to own that data.
We can't have this data just willy-nilly in the air and being sold off.
But what kind of data can they get other than your license plate and the owner of the car?
Well, they could get like, all right, you're driving down Washington Avenue over by Ohio and you're turning and then it's whatever businesses is in there, they could buy that data and then you get ads for that area.
So they know like,
what businesses you're next to, that type of dad.
But
it's nothing nefarious.
No, it's just more of an invasion of privacy.
That's the thing.
You made an excellent point.
When we go on social media, yeah, we signed up for that invasion.
And when you put your information out there on the internet, you did it.
But the flock cameras, we didn't sign up for that.
Talking to 12th District, Alder Rocco DeMarc, he is in studio with us today.
Let's talk about the 34 homes being built in the former Geesey site in the Geesey neighborhood.
I was unaware they knocked the school down.
I said, what do you want?
Was they in a coma that week?
When did they knock this down?
I
believe it was like a year and a half ago, maybe two years ago.
Wow.
Because of how the building was, they had to knock it down.
But right now it's vacant lot.
And where is it exactly?
People that don't know, like me.
It's on Bird Avenue.
Yeah.
Over, yeah, by the apartment complex.
That's right.
That's your district.
Yeah.
Look at you.
Oh, yeah.
You're involved.
Oh yeah, and the thing I'm really excited about this project.
So far the city council has passed a resolution to authorize developers on that land.
Now we're just waiting for the school district to agree to the land swap.
Right now that is, I believe that is going to be a great opportunity for families to get into.
Right now we have incentives for city employees.
and all our USD employees that could get into those buildings.
Okay.
That's good.
Yeah.
That's a good thing for the city.
I like that idea.
Farmer's Market at Festival Hall.
We have the lady from the Farmer's Market in here all the time.
I'm like, if you look on the wall, you see the poster for it right over here on the bulletin board.
Let's talk about the Farmer's Market.
They have till, what, October?
I think late October?
I believe that.
I don't have the exact date.
I know it's like the last weekend of October.
They're open until, it is a great
opportunity to get fresh produce.
I went there several times.
They have really good vendors for food.
It's something that is not talked about a lot.
I keep... I'm constantly telling people, hey, you should go to our farmer market, especially my friends, the self of us.
Yeah,
we've been there.
Yeah.
The only thing I get a problem with, and I hate to be a naysayer,
the parking meters because now you have to download the app.
You got to use a credit card to park and I won't do that.
So I park and I find a parking meter on the street and I go over there.
But that's going to be a problem.
My wife works at the courthouse and she said one of the guys who was on the jury couldn't download the app.
I forget where he was parking.
Couldn't download the app.
Couldn't get it going.
Couldn't any lady had to run it.
So he just give me the ticket.
I'll take the ticket.
And you have to download the app on your phone.
You've got to download your credit card information.
That isn't the easiest way to do it.
And the city has got to pay 4% on that because every time you use your credit card, it's a 4% charge.
There's got to be a different way to do that than having... We were at an event at the festival park and I saw the elderly couple there and they were trying to figure out how to do it on their phone.
They couldn't figure it out.
Just take the ticket if they give it to me.
I mean,
This whole thing of parking on your phone.
Now for some people, it's really easy.
Download the app, boom.
Just hit the button and you're done.
For other people, it's not.
And I'm one of those people.
So I'm on the committee for Department of Public Works.
And that's a big conversation that we're having.
From my understanding, the current meters are out of date.
They can't update anymore.
They can't download the new servers.
the cost of replacing those are higher than just doing the system that they're moving towards, I believe.
But you can do a cash option system.
Yes.
I've seen them because I've been in it where you go to the board and you can either put your credit card in or you can put cash in there and you get a receipt for your and you put the receipt in your window.
Yeah, they're going to have these devices or boards, whatever they're going to be.
And then you just punch in your license plate, and then you could pay cash, coin, credit, debit card.
They don't have them now, though.
Well, right now, they're going into a deal.
So it's still going through the committees.
You're going to let me know when it's done?
Oh, yeah.
I want you knocking on that door at seven o'clock in the morning and just hold up a sign.
It's done.
I'll let you in the building.
We can talk about it.
How's that?
I get up at four o'clock in the morning, you get to work at 5.30, so it might be earlier than that.
Okay, so I'm here
at 5.30, just knock on the door at 5.30, and we'll talk about it.
Let's talk about the current projects and initiatives going the way in the city of Racine.
By the way, which is your, wouldn't that outline your district
for us?
So my district is the most west, southwest part of Racine.
It goes from Kinsey all the way to Russet down to 17th Bird.
And then to Green Bay Road.
And of course, my block,
Victory Avenue, right here.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, we got a complaint.
I'll just go right down the block and knock on your door.
Hey, there's a bump in street.
Fix it.
That's my probably my biggest complaint.
I don't know if it's because I'm getting old and more crotchety and that could be it.
I have never seen more bumps and holes in the streets in my life.
Even coming down the lathe rope, they patched it and they did a lousy job patching it.
You hit it, you go, boom.
Can't they make it smooth when they patch it?
I mean, do they have to make it with a bump in it?
Even on Main Street, they did a lot of sewer work, you know, they're connecting the houses.
And one of the patches is, boom, boom, your car has to go on a tilt to go over it.
You're telling me they couldn't have smoothed that out?
The thing about that is over here on 16-3, for example, I was driving down there from work and all of a sudden I started hitting these bumps.
All I have to say is please contact your local alders because I sent an email out and immediately it was fixed.
Especially the one over on Ohio and Ohio and 16th.
That was a really bad hole.
I had to avoid it every time I drive around.
And the manhole
covers.
Oh
yeah.
There's one on Main Street just before you get to the zoo.
And it's like two inches below the street.
I mean, you can't avoid it because you can't go left.
You'll be in the other lane.
You can't go right.
Somebody might be in that lane as well.
You've got to hit it, boom, boom, every time.
And I just fix this stuff.
I've been complaining about it now for about a year.
They're
slowly fixing it.
The problem is, really, that's the key word, slowly.
Yeah.
The problem is, is the funding formula coming from the state.
We're not getting that much from the state.
So we have to
use our money wisely when it came down, come down to stuff like that.
Hopefully things will change, but that it all comes down to the almighty dollar.
And I wish that we could have more to fix these roads.
It just comes down to that.
So that's my only complaint.
The roads.
Yeah, that's it.
And the parking meters, the roads and the meters, everything else is fine.
The city looks good.
I love the city.
You know, we we were at that thing last night at the Golden Rondale.
And they were talking about downtown Racine in the 50s and 60s.
Looks quite a bit different.
It was all neon.
The whole, the whole downtown was nothing but neon.
And wow.
I've seen pictures of downtown back in the day.
And it is like a totally different like city.
Yeah.
Like you would think that was more like Chicago than Racine.
And times change.
I get it.
I get it.
I mean, things change.
I mean, look at me.
And there's another way I looked.
in the in the 60s.
I looked a lot different.
All right, I want to spend a few more minutes with our guest, Rocco DeMarco.
He is the 12th district alder here in the city of Racine.
So come out some upcoming city events.
What's on your agenda?
So we have party party on the pavement this weekend in downtown Racine.
I'm also holding a coffee with alder on the 26th.
So I'm hoping people from the 12th district show up and
you know, share their ideas and their concerns with me.
Where's that going to be?
That's going to be at UNI's Cafe on Washington Avenue.
Oh,
yeah, yeah, we've been there.
Now, I never had a cup of coffee in my life.
What do I do?
They have sodas.
Now, you say sodas.
I haven't had a soda in 12 years.
Oh.
I stopped drinking.
So I was drinking four diet pepsis a day.
And my wife said, you know what's in diet pepsi?
It's worse than the regular soda.
It's all chemicals.
So I stopped.
And I haven't had a soda in 12 years.
Never had a cup of coffee in my life.
Just, I love the smell of it.
I just don't drink hot liquids.
I don't know why.
So I don't drink soda.
I don't drink coffee.
What do I do with your get-together?
Lemonade?
They have water.
What do I drink here
in the
morning?
I don't drink coffee.
I drink water.
Yeah, I'm only on your lake here.
So when you have these coffee with the altar, you get a lot of people wanting to start fights with
you?
Well, I get a lot of like me.
No, no, I mean, this is the first time I'm actually having a coffee with the alder.
Like I said, I go around the district and I talk to people.
Mostly it's about speeders.
That's that's what I've been hearing more about over the summer.
And that I put in the communication, I think back in June about
speeding plans and whatnot.
And I had one of those speeding wagons on 16th Street.
So those speeding wagons take data from the area.
So they see cars going by and they actually do work.
You know, they don't just throw a number out there for no reason.
For two weeks, they do a study in that area.
And they look at how often when
people are speeding so then they can force it in that area.
So with speeders, when I come to work in the morning, I take Main Street, I wind up on 16th.
Now 16th is 30 miles an hour.
I get, these people are driving so close behind me because I can't even see their headlights and they can't pass me on the right because their car is parked on 16th Street so they have a problem and they want to move me and I won't go faster than 30 miles an hour.
You're not going to make me go any faster.
So if you want to follow that close and take the risk of me having to stop for a squirrel and bashing into the back of my car, then that's going to happen.
And, you know, because they're late for work, they want me to speed.
I'm not late for work.
I have plenty of time.
I arrange that if something happened, like I got to stop at a freight train occasionally.
And those things just go on and on.
And you want your skin age sitting at those freight trains.
The crazy thing is.
So I work at your set at Eger Home.
So I go all the way from Southside to Northside.
So I usually take 16 to Green Bay and this takes me straight over there.
Every morning on 16 over by Ohio, it's like a race track.
It's like, holy crap, like I understand it.
It's five o'clock in the morning.
And, you know, you may woke up late, but, you know, not my fault.
Yeah.
Maybe go to sleep a little earlier, you know, whatever.
But it's just.
The speeding is getting a little bit too out of hand, I think.
And the police chief is doing everything he can to knock it down a little bit, but it takes time to take
stuff.
You know what it is?
You're not going to change human nature.
And if that's what they're going to do, that's what they're going to do.
You're not going to change them.
And when I was a janitor at my first radio station, people, they were pigs.
They were slobs.
They just, because they knew I'd clean it up.
And it was the three-story building we had, the radio station.
And I complained once to the program director of the station.
I said, these people are pigs.
They're just slobs.
And he said, I'm going to tell you something now that will serve you well for the rest of your life.
You can't dictate morality to people.
They have it or they don't.
They're going to do the right thing and the wrong thing.
They won't change, but you can't dictate morality to people.
So me telling them not to be slobs, it's not going to change anything because they're slobs.
That's what they are.
And they don't think they're slobs.
They just think this is where they go around.
Speeders, you know, if you tell them to slow down, they're going to slow down without their nature to follow the rules.
They don't want to slow down.
I mean, I know some that do speed a lot and there's reasons why I don't drive with
them.
So I don't know if you picture this.
We're coming up from the courthouse of Wisconsin Avenue and we're heading to State Street.
Now, it used to be on State Street used to be able to go down south on Wisconsin Avenue.
They changed it to his north only.
You can only head off there.
So I'm going up there and a school truck or van.
It was no, no children.
It was like one of the delivery things for the school this week.
He's coming the wrong way at me is a one way street.
He's coming the wrong way to hold my horn down because I have nowhere to go.
And he doesn't, he doesn't realize he's going the wrong way.
So I pull over by the curb, almost up the curb to let him go by and I'm holding them.
It gives me a look like what are you beeping me for?
because you're going the wrong way.
It was like that movie, Trains, Planes, Automobiles.
You ever see it?
Remember when they go in the wrong way and the guy in the window says, you're going the wrong way.
And John Candy says, how does he know where we're going?
It was like that kind of look I got from the guy.
So it's so dangerous out there on the road.
And the latest danger are these scooters, these e-scooters and the e-bikes.
Oh, yeah.
There was a guy on 16th Street.
He's there every day now.
I'm used to him.
And
He has no lights on it.
He's wearing all black clothing.
And unless they put the brights on, I can't see him.
And he's alongside the road, but still, you know.
Well, one of these mornings that I was driving to work, I'm on M.M.
And also I see this person on a scooter.
And in my mind, and with my research on these, they're like 22 miles per hour, right?
This guy was just flying.
I think he was going like 60 miles per hour.
I mean, he had like reflectors on everything, but I was just like, man, one.
little bump you're gonna fly.
Yeah, and then you're gonna get in trouble if you hit them.
Yeah.
Your light, you may not be legally, you know, responsible with John G. Conscience, you know, you hit somebody.
I mean, you gotta live with that for the rest of your life.
Oh, yeah.
Aren't you glad you came in this morning?
Oh, yeah.
Okay, quick review here.
We talked about the 34 homes being built at the former Geesey site.
Yes.
And they're not built now, but they're going to be built.
Right now it's an empty lot.
Well, right now it's an empty lot.
Right now,
Not next week, but the following week the school board is taking this up on the land agreement with the city So That's where it is right now.
Okay the flock cameras that they stealing all your data and we're doing something about it We're getting rid of them or something like that or we're eventually gonna get rid of them
So the mayor did not put in his budget proposal for next year.
Okay for my understanding there is something off
to the side where if we find a replacement that's a better deal than Flock, we can get that.
So right now, the police department is looking into replacing Flock.
And you have coffee with the alder?
When's that coming up again?
Give
us the date.
September 26 at Uni Cafe.
What day of week is that?
September 20?
Saturday.
Oh, that's OK.
All right, that's good.
And then people can't complain.
Well, we'll work today.
OK, it's Saturday morning at what time now?
Between 9 and 11 o'clock.
Okay.
And UniCafe that's right there on Washington Avenue.
Can't
miss it.
Right there, district two.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, I've been there before.
Yeah, that's pretty nice.
And you bring all your complaints and not only complaints, but maybe, you know, you want to give some thoughts for improvement.
Maybe you have some ideas that you never heard of before.
So you're really into this job, huh?
I love it.
Good for you.
I like everything about it.
So where do you want to go from here to Governor?
No.
Everyone keeps saying that, like mayor or governor.
I'm good where I'm at right now.
Governor
Rocco.
Hey, no one's messing with me.
I'm Governor
Rocco.
That's a tough name.
Oh yeah.
Yeah.
I had to live with Donald.
That's not a tough name.
Nobody was afraid of Donald.
Hey, you're the duck.
Actually,
Um, at Fratt the school I used to work at, uh, there was a lunch lady named Adrian, so every so often I would say,
Adrian!
Yo, yo, Adrian!
Yo, Adrian!
Well, that's good.
You know, right now I have a nice conversation with you here.
That's good.
That's what you're going to have at the, uh, at the, um, coffee with the older conversation.
Yeah, nothing heavy.
You know, don't start bringing your picket signs here.
It's like the villages with pitchforks and torches.
Don't come down.
I like that.
Well, thank you for coming in.
Well, can I say a couple things?
Okay.
I just want to wish a happy birthday to my sister.
Today is her birthday.
Happy birthday, sister.
What's her name?
Antoinette DeMark.
Antoinette, okay.
And I have to plug this in because I have to be a good brother to her.
She is going to have her food truck at the Italian Fest in Kenosha this weekend.
Okay, what kind of food?
of meatball bombers, hot beef, pizza burgers.
If you
really wanted to promote that, you should have brought the truck here this morning and brought some food.
And that's how you promote the radio announcers.
Because once we eat it, we talk about it for the next month.
See, now you didn't bring anything.
I'm going to forget about it.
So you should have brought the meatball bombers.
I'm glad you didn't.
I'm down
51 pounds and meatball bombers are not on my agenda.
But well, thanks for coming in.
Good luck.
And happy birthday to your sister.
We're not going to ask the age that's impolite.
But Antoinette, that's a nice name.
So you got Rocco, she got Antoinette.
Any other brothers and sisters?
Um, I just, sir and I.
Okay.
I was wondering what the other names are going to be.
Well, that's pretty neat.
Well, thank you for coming in, Alder.
That's very nice.
And you're welcome anytime, of course.
Christian, write down the
block here.
So
that's good.
It only took me like two minutes to get here.
Yeah, that's good.
Walking.
Well, thank you very much for coming in.
I do appreciate
it.
Thank you for having me.
You're welcome here anytime.
And don't forget, coffee with the alder, it's going to be at the Uni Cafe and that is Saturday the 26th from 9 to 11.
Yes.
All right.
And even if you don't like coffee, you can get soda, you can get other drinks there too.
Water.
Water with the, water with the alder.
Just hydrate yourself.
Yeah,
that's what I like.