National Guard Insights and Community Growth (Hour 2)

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Coming to Northeast Wisconsin live from the Civic Media Studios, this is Mino and the Mayor.

And here are your hosts, John Minow

and Jim Schmidt.

Hey, thank you very much.

Welcome back.

Beautiful Monday morning out there, 55 in Green Bay, 61 in Alton, 58 in Oshkosh.

As Brittany said, partly to mostly cloudy today, scattered storms high in the low 80s, up to 90 by the time the weekend rolls around.

Well, right now, we're very honored to be with Grant Soletsky, Wisconsin Army National Guard, and of course, the big deployment taking place.

Everybody shipped out last week.

So, Grant,

You know what you know, it's funny people.

I'll say all those poor people that have to go No, that's what they sign up for they love it.

No, we know you

guys love it

Yeah as a recruiter like yeah, I miss it so much.

It's what you do

Yeah, it's just it's something to go do and it's a year away and go do yeah, and you just you wake up you do what you're told to do and then

You're

living your dream.

So

you don't have to cut the lawn after one of your wife's saying go

clean the bathroom.

Yeah, you have you have a first sergeant telling you

that.

Where we sign up?

Are we two all?

That's cool.

That is

cool.

I think John's right about people are very worried and concerned but feel sorry for them.

But they don't these guys like you said you recruited them they signed up and they're energetic.

Yeah, I have like nine people.

that I recruited so it's really it's kind like so my son's on it as well I know yeah so he's a he's a combat engineer but he hopped on with the the infantry for this but yeah it's uh I'm very like I'm more nervous like yeah like I'm as I did I'm happy my son's there right I think it's safer for him there than it is here yeah because he's living the young life and we all know all the young life is

well that's the that's the thing though too that I took away from being when I right you know visited embedded

They take care of each other.

So you will never have more protection.

All right.

You'll, you know, they have who's got my six, you know, who's got my back.

You will never have more people supporting you and defending you in

whatever

in your entire lifetime than once you're in the military and you're deployed.

Yeah.

And then so I was, I got to go in 2019.

I was lucky enough to go to Afghanistan.

And we were in Bagram for a little while.

And when I came home and we were going through Chicago,

And I'm like, if I got, like I feel felt safer in Afghanistan than I did there.

Absolutely.

Because there's towers everywhere.

Like it was, yeah, it was, it's crazy.

You get that situational awareness.

Yeah, you do.

Yeah, you notice a lot more things.

Yeah.

Yeah, you watch everything.

Yeah.

Tell me about the recruiting.

I mean, how is that?

We get concerned that we're not getting the talent that we used to have yet.

On the other hand, you hear that, you know, there's.

It's

hard to get in.

It's hard to get in.

I know it is.

But American Pride is back.

Good.

So the National Guard is up, Army is up.

I'm pretty sure all other branches are up.

So that's good.

But again, the biggest issue is all these people are looking to join, but it's so easy to get antidepressants, anxiety medication, all these different pills that doctors give out.

when kids can't sit in their chair, because they want to sit in their chair for eight hours a day, and they're wondering why they're jumping around.

So hey, give them this pill.

But then it's an instant, like a three year wait.

So you're on anxiety medication and antidepressants, like three years.

ADHD is like a year, year and a half.

So the moment you go up, like I want to sign up, like, ah, sorry, bud.

But

you guys, the thing is, and I told you, a great friend of mine lives.

Wonderful lady.

Her daughter is a medic and she actually sat with Jim.

You were at the The music thing last year, weren't you?

Yes.

Okay.

She was her daughter

was sitting with us, right?

And she's a medic now and being deployed and it's like, you know, I followed her since she was like six years old I've been friends with her mom and everything like that.

It's like She is so proud to be in the National Guard and be a medic in the National Guard.

It's like, you know years ago and I grew up

Like I talk about you know my high school graduating class was the first class that didn't have to register for the draft Okay, you know through Vietnam and nobody wants going to the military then I mean it was you know if you have if you got in trouble with the law Going to

the army, you know, whatever jailer army,

and it's a whole different world right now.

You guys only want

Very cool people.

You know what I mean?

You

got your

heads on straight.

It's it's not the place to go to get straightened out It's like we don't want to deal with knuckleheads.

We want the

elite Yeah, if you uh criminal records or another pain the butt together, so yeah, it's uh,

it's tough It's tough to get in

it is but the benefits are so good The payback so when you look at like National Guard for instance we we give eight years of college

Incredible.

So the state of Wisconsin, which loves their National Guard, so thank you, Wisconsin.

Get a four-year, 100% tuition grant, all right?

And then the GI Bill, which is another four years, which all federal components get.

And since we're state and federal, we get dual options.

So like, you can go get your bachelor's degree, and then when you're done with that, you want to go to your master's?

Okay, go do your thing.

Wow.

Yeah, it's just, and then insurance-wise and camaraderie-wise, family-wise, like, it's... It's incredible.

Yep.

And they gave us cool uniforms and MREs too.

The

only thing, the only thing, the only negative, okay?

These young guys, alright, when they re-up and they get that beautiful huge cash bonus.

Sometimes.

Don't buy a truck or a motorcycle right away.

Invest it somewhere.

Yeah, so the bonus isn't so much the investment parts.

Like all the guys are deployed right now.

They're gonna go overseas for...

However long it is and when you're when your boots on ground overseas, it's tax-free.

Yep.

So that's just accumulating.

Yep.

And then they come back.

And

they buy that truck.

So I'm pushing myself like, let's go to college, please.

Yeah, please.

You have nothing.

Who cares?

Because when you're

48 years old, you will look at that amount of money

and

say, oh my goodness gracious, would I love to have that right

now?

And then they went and bought a truck with those like.

Rubber things over well, and it's all rusted off in the bed.

I was looking at one this morning.

It was like a 2020 and it was all rusted.

I was like, oh, those are nice rubber side things we got there.

Good job.

So tell us a little bit about your unit.

I know I never want to talk about where people go because that should be kind of classified or everything.

But tell us about all the National Guard members that are deployed right now and they had the big send off a couple of weeks ago.

So it's a 127.

So we got second division.

Yep.

So we got Alpha company down in Rippon.

We got Bravo company in Green Bay.

We have Charlie and Fonda lack We have Delta used to be in Marinette now It's Clintonville and then all the medics and yep, so they're headed over They're in training right now.

They'll pop out sometime down Texas Texas and then at some point in next couple months They'll pop out and they're going Middle East area and yeah, they have a few different missions.

Not sure exactly what they are

But they're gonna go over there and do their thing and enjoy a year and eat well and work out and and they'll be better protected than anybody walking the streets of Northeast, Wisconsin.

Yes.

So moms, they'll be okay.

Absolutely.

And I just think I want to underscore how they're how much they're looking forward to it.

It's

what they sign up.

Right.

They're jacked to go against something to do.

Right.

So the cool thing about again, National Guard, right?

We got we live this, I also like to say civilian life, military life.

They both suck at some point.

So like with a National Guard, like you work two days a weekend, sometimes three.

There is not a weekend, but a month, like three days and then two weeks in the summertime.

But just when the civilian side kind of is starting to get you down, then guess what?

You get to take that civilian uniform off, put your military uniform on, go do stuff, and right when the military starts to suck, which is about three to four days,

we get to take it off and go back to regular

world.

It's like a great reset.

So like this is like a great one year reset to like truly like

appreciate what you have here, appreciate what you have there, and you come back balanced.

But the benefits are for the rest of your life.

I can

see why you're the recruiter.

I mean, that makes a lot of sense.

I love the National Guard.

I was going

to say, how old were you when you 34?

34.

He's not incredible.

And it is the best decision I've ever made.

And the amount of older gentlemen that came up to me,

like the day after I signed up, it had to be like 15, 20 dudes.

I ran a gym at the time, so I hadn't like saw a lot, a lot of people.

And they're like, my number one regret in life is not signing up for service.

So you know what, guys and gals, if it's in your heart, go do it.

Right.

Just do it.

And you know what?

Regret sucks.

There are so many opportunities for women.

in the National Guard.

It's incredible.

I would say it's getting darn close as far as recruiting.

So I'm down in Madison now.

I teach ROTC at UW.

I took a promotion to Sergeant First Class down there.

So I run the recruiting office on the campus.

You're

Sergeant First Class?

Yeah.

Big shooter now.

Wow.

A lot better than Private First Class when I started.

Just a little.

It was 50-50 this year for recruiting for me actually from my whole office like we it's there's a lot of females doing it like and they should like it's Do your thing?

So

you're teaching at the U?

Correct military science too.

Yeah, I took that at St.

Norbert,

but it

wasn't I'm sure it's much more sophisticated now with you

the same thing I bet yeah overall

he wasn't real pleased with our class though.

He gave us a map, okay, but just They fill in the countries

That's not easy.

Well, we weren't very... God just choked us.

I everybody knew Italy was the boot, but ever in that, he was not really happy.

And we had to really study that.

We're all college, but I don't know where kind of maybe, I don't know.

I was in Norbert's, maybe two.

I don't know, we just never studied it for whatever

reason.

And he didn't like that.

I just remember that.

We repelled and did a lot of the cool stuff.

Oh, you did that stuff too?

Yeah, that was fun.

Yeah, we don't do that.

So that's like, so... Oh, that was... You don't repell?

Well, we do the like...

Because that

would be the

one thing I'd fail at.

Military science, we don't.

Oh.

Oh.

Do you shoot?

Do you teach your kids how to?

No.

Well, we did that

too.

And I

told them, I said, look, I'm not much of a hunter because, you know, we prefer people like you because these guys who

shoot.

And don't break any bad habits.

They know everything.

But I liked him a lot.

And I had a couple of friends of mine that

signed up with a good deal.

We're sophomores, I think.

And then they paid for your other two years at St.

Norbert, and then you were committed to another four or six.

But they loved it.

I mean, they stayed in it.

One of the guys stayed.

I think he's still in it.

Okay.

Yeah.

So like.

So we have the option.

So there's cadets that are actually already contracted with the cadets become future officers.

Like they're contracted with the U.S.

Army.

And then there's just regular students that are in the class.

ROTC in high schools, I know.

They have J-ROTC, junior ROTC, and that is down in like Appleton area.

We don't have it up in this area.

But there's no correlation between the two of them.

So do you

teach both or are you just teaching the people like me that we weren't...

I teach both.

So that was the craziest thing for me.

So I went in there.

And I never taught a college class before In the two-hour classes, too.

I found out like the day before that my class was two hours.

That was awesome Anyhow, so I have like 15 of my kids were the cadets so like they got

it They've

been in for two years that like they get the thing but then five other kids were just regular students and I wasn't tracking that there was students and cadets

So I had to figure out, because you talk to soldiers a little different than you talk

to, and not like just

swearing and all that, but it's the abbreviations and all the different things that we just say that we, you know, it's just what we do.

But it's a cool chance for the cadets to be able to show the students, because as soon as I'll throw out something, like what's an ORP or whatever, and they'll be like, what's that?

And they'll say what it is.

And then the other students are like, oh, that's cool.

And then before you know it,

I get to recruit a few new kids out of there.

It's nice to my cadets.

You know, you actually throw out one quick little term that was totally military.

Normally, you and I or Todd would all say, oh, I'm following that.

You're

tracking

that.

Tracking.

Tracking is such a military term.

It is.

I have you said before, like, what do you mean?

I'm like tracking.

Like, do you get it?

Understand it?

You know, that's a really good idea in having the mix, because we were just all novices.

We didn't know anything.

And it would have been.

It's cool to see somebody who signed

up and

maybe look up to them a little bit or talk to them after class and say, you know, how's this really going for you?

That's a good idea.

So

that's at Madison.

Yeah.

Okay, good.

It's awesome.

So Madison and St.

Norbert's and GB has the same thing in Oshkosh, Stevens Point.

What are you guys

looking for, Grant?

You as a recruiter, who do you want to see walk through your door?

I want to see people that know what they want.

Like, what do you want in life?

Like, what's your direction?

And then once you do that, like, all right.

And they're willing to make a map and make that and chart that course and that's my job and that's us as recruiters job like all right Here's the course you want to you want to start here with us and they say yes or if they don't whatever but I just like motivated people that are that love their country and Appreciate the benefits of it and appreciate what they have and then just give back a little bit.

It's really not that much

and

I don't know that that's a good way to recruit though because I think even I thought a good school that recruited was Drake and they come in They said what do you want to do?

And if the kid knows the guys like look we can work

with you on that but

you gotta I Think people wanted when they were kind of lost back back in the day and now they go in with a goal anyway.

Yeah, it's

quick break Grand Seleski, Wisconsin Army National Guard back at this

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So in the training wise, you wake up in the morning, eat your

chow, whatever it's going to be.

Living in some, not the greatest barracks, but...

Whatever, so

how we are

we can see Texas, right?

Yeah, it was it was kind of funny I don't want to get any politics or whatever But like when they showed the the soldiers in California that we're laying on the thing that's how we sleep like we don't we're not Congress or senators that get sent to

Super rich hotels no one no one says anything about that like why are these guys getting this that like we sleep wherever we get to sleep Like it's just the way it is like we there's hundreds and hundreds of soldiers.

What are you gonna do put them up in a hotel?

Yes, you should but they save that money for the senators in Congress Yeah, so no worries, so um, but yeah, so anyway

fine with that.

We don't care

like we sleep anywhere doesn't matter that it's as the one thing I learned the great phrase Embrace the suck.

Yeah, you just deal with it like it's and we're all doing it together so it doesn't

It doesn't faze

us.

That always gets me when the people complaining

aren't the people that should be complaining

right you know what i mean like well because they're using it as a as a as a political a political fair you just

said we're fine

yeah and they're

like oh he's poor it's like no we're we're

and then go go talk to a joe and like hey does this suck like yeah are you okay yeah right yeah we're fine if you like emmeries no but are they okay yeah i like emmery so again i don't second time i brought it up but chill the emmeries all day oh hey you people eat well yeah let's be honest you people eat well

And then when they get overseas, the food is phenomenal.

Yeah.

Well, most places.

I actually put on weight

when I went to Iraq the first time

because of

the midnight snack

where they'd have

the ice cream

Sunday thing.

So good.

Oh, my God.

And then the omelettes in the morning.

Yeah.

We had some.

They're from Africa.

The ones who are African India were cooks and by God to make an omelette.

Yeah.

Unbelievable.

So good.

Yeah.

Anyhow, get back to training.

So they wake up, they wake up and they go do whatever it is.

They got it slowly, but surely you build up training, um, different exercises and well, you'll do PT and then you go do live fire.

You'll go do squad tactics, whatever your mission is going to be.

That's what you're training up to go do.

Um, and then yeah, you train, train all day, sometimes into the night, sometimes all night.

Um,

go to a live range, you go pick up brass when it's done.

That's miserable, I will say that.

Picking up brass rounds at three in the morning, and you need a certain amount before you get to go to bed.

And you have two people that are working in that.

One thing about the 127, though, it's an infantry unit.

You know, the 432nd was Civil Affairs.

But you guys are an infantry unit.

Yeah, we are the...

the primary reserve combat force of the United States Army, the National Guard.

That's what people have to understand.

Correct, like we are, so it's active duty and then National Guard.

Remember, National Guard, when were we established?

You guys know?

No.

1636, we birthed everything.

We were the OGs of the military.

So that's why it was like we are the backup infantry.

And then also...

Hey, what I was doing the Wisconsin or the basketball team in Oshkosh.

The hurt yeah, and I was talking to this one guys.

Hey when young play goes.

What's up?

Oh gee?

I'm like hey that sounds like a cool thing.

Tell me oh gee and then somebody said it means old

guy.

No it means old goat.

Old goat.

Original gangster.

That's

what he meant when he

was talking.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, right.

But yeah, so it's pretty cool and in highway 32 signs you guys know that right on all the highway 32 signs throughout the state.

There's two red arrows on it.

Never notice that take a look really now you know

Wow,

I will say this

the 32nd Division and in my first book I wrote and I the history of the 32nd Division is

mind-boggling Yes, we impressive legit the longest running concurrent days in World War two of any active or reserve element It's in the

world war one.

Yeah,

where they first got the nickname late terrible in the French

pronunciation.

I think that's

Like history, I love history, and I think that brings a long pride.

And

heck,

that's great that you teach them.

I mean, we look at how much we're learning.

We've been around forever.

Yeah, that's just very cool that that's part of who you are.

And I didn't know that.

It's not in the red arrow.

Oh, I got it.

We haven't penetrated.

Yeah, I got

it.

They

penetrate further into enemy territory than any other unit in World War One.

Yeah.

So these is incredible.

They're

heritage down

in Texas.

So they're they're

taking these.

How long are they there?

So I'll just talk about my experience.

So in 2019, we were going to go to Afghanistan and it ended up, we were down in Texas and we were supposed to be there for a month.

We ended up there three months.

And that's when it's like, oh, please just get us out of here.

So anyway, a month, two months, three months.

And then it all depends because everything's scheduled.

Everything's planned out.

There's nothing like, there's no surprise.

It's not like, it sort of playments with the guard.

Nothing is a surprise.

It's not like oh World War three kick and that would be a surprise Then we would have like whatever you called but that's active element side that does that Everything's planned out years in advance like we know where we're gonna go We know all this stuff and just got to go with the flow So if somebody

is listening right now and thinks you know that might not be a bad gig for my son or whatever or my daughter

What do they do?

So we have a few great, great recruiters in the Green Bay area.

A good friend of mine, Sergeant Miller and Sergeant Martin, they're at the Green Bay Recruitering Office at 801 Military Avenue.

Military, go figure.

Yeah, and all you gotta do is just go push the button there and say, hey, I'm interested.

And to hear more about it, isn't committing to anything.

But if you have interest,

Go find out.

But yeah, Sergeant Miller and Sergeant Martin, phenomenal recruiters.

They're both really good friends of mine.

Miller used to actually work for me at CrossFit Green Bay.

And once again, the educational benefits are mind boggling.

Yeah, don't pay for school.

Dummies do that.

Like, we can go, you can go to school, like, do you need college?

Not necessarily, but if you get it for free, Ken, do you need it?

Why not?

Yeah.

We'll pay for

it.

But don't buy a truck with your bonus.

No, unless it's used.

Exactly.

Grant.

Great having you here,

my brother.

Thank you so much, guys.

Anything we can support you guys?

Yeah, and that's hot about November.

All right.

Hell, yes.

Let's go.

I'm so excited right now.

I

can't believe

it.

Well, yeah, set a quick break.

Eddie Alpanez, Green Bay Prescasette, extraordinary reporter joining us next.

Got something to say?

Text Mino and the Mayor directly through the Civic Media app.

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Now, back to Mino and the Mayor.

Here's John Mino and Jim Schmidt.

Hey, thank you very much.

Welcome back.

Special thanks to Grant Sileski from the Wisconsin Army National Guard.

Of course, they're deployed right now in Texas, and they're going overseas.

Man, I can't say enough good things about the Army National Guard, how wonderful they are in every way.

Joining us right now is an extraordinary reporter, and I'm not...

throwing that out there.

Ariel Perez from the Green Bay Press.

He's one of those guys.

Ariel, I'm serious.

When I see your byline, it's like you read the article no matter what, because you have such a great style of writing.

And I really and truly mean that.

It's short.

It's

informative.

Yes.

No BS.

So you read it quick and you learn what is happening.

You kind of have an idea of what's

If it's a restaurant, for example, where you're gonna get there, right?

You know what I mean?

I think it's a little

bit of history of the person.

If they want to talk about it.

I want to be a writer.

I major in journalism.

I want my goals to be a sports illustrated writer, whatever.

So I love good writing.

And you're just a good... Now, I'm not blown smoke at you, but I just enjoy reading your stories,

no matter what it's about.

You know, I think it's easier for me in Spanish.

But English, you know, I'm

getting there.

Wow.

Well, I hope you stay here for a long time.

Like I said, the Chicago Tribune or somebody's going to come knocking.

Yeah, I'm staying.

I'm staying.

That's awesome.

What are you working on?

I know you're working a lot of business things.

I read that and you've talked about new businesses, which is exciting.

But there's businesses that close and you put those in there.

You don't spend as much time on those as you do on the new ones.

But is there a common thread why they close?

I mean, I teach business, it's capital.

Yeah.

So are we too generous with money?

I mean, why?

But we do have some failures here and I yeah, and I'm not I want you to dwell on that but

well, you know learn from you know what's hard When a business close it's tough to get the owner to talk about what they why they close

Yeah, it's

you know, they're probably hurt.

Maybe they have dead

Uh, you know, and I tried, I really, I really, I really, really tried to get in touch with them.

And, you know, because precisely because of that, because I want to learn why, what happened, how they fail.

Is there a common thread?

Is it because we didn't have the density downtown that they thought we had?

Is it because they couldn't recruit?

But if like businesses are failing, it's not.

always their fault Ariel.

No.

I mean, it could be,

you know, forces.

So, for example, I interviewed this new owner.

He's opening a cafe in Suamiko.

He had a restaurant before, and I think it was Oshkosh, and he had to close it down after, I don't know, eight months.

The thing is, he is a cook.

He said, what I like is to be in the kitchen and work there.

But, you know, I had a guy that was managing and, you know, money goes going the other way.

And so I didn't know about, you know, all the taxes that I had to pay, all this thing.

So there's some of that, I guess.

There's other people.

And this is for what I've seen when I asked them, and are you leasing?

And they say, yeah, I'm leasing.

And I figured, you know, the rent is.

here must be really expensive.

You know, if it's in downtown Green Bay or in Bellevue, for example, that area that's developing over there, if you're not doing well with sales, eventually you're going to go down.

Right.

And that happens a lot.

Yeah.

And I think we have a responsibility.

People don't know workman's comp and taxes and accruing for that.

Yeah.

You know, we got to ask those questions and we got to help them do that because business is tough.

I

mean, it

is.

It's like I. It is like they say.

The most successful ones that I've talked to is like they plan for a year and a half with losses, for example.

Even if they're doing well, you know, they're smart with money.

They save, they may be, you know, hire one more person, because if they're having good business, but it takes a lot to get there.

And we've had people on here,

we talk about research

before

you get in, because everybody, I mean, it's exciting to get in and start ringing the till, but if you don't...

know what you're getting into.

I mean, not just the industry.

I'm talking about your local thing.

And we had a gallon here from Appleton or Oshkosh that did like subway sandwiches.

And she spent a lot of time researching that little business a lot.

She'd sit in her competitor's

restaurant and

listen to what people ordered.

And she's not going to fail because of research.

And

things happen.

She almost saw what

not to do.

Right, she did.

I love my Hispanic people, but they

I've seen it a lot here.

A lot of Hispanics, they go into the business without knowing much.

They think it's going to be easy.

I start selling, and I'm going to make money, and that's it.

And then on Military Avenue with Leah, the executive director, she's told me many times.

You know, I've tried to help, but some of these people, they don't,

they

don't even know about the permits.

They don't, they don't do it.

And then they get shut down because you get an inspection and, you know, you're using something you shouldn't be using or you're selling something you can't cook there, you know.

And that's where government has a little bit more of a responsibility

to say,

look, before I give you that, that the permit where you can occupy the property.

And I'm saying we have to give them a class, but.

Boy it's nice if they could just take a few classes and just really because there's like yeah Yeah, people are like I didn't know that and I'm glad it's good.

Let's

learn it now before you're you know two feet in

it's almost what Sarah White used to do Right

never that group.

She had a group.

It was um,

I can't think of

it.

Oh Yeah, but for entrepreneurs.

Yeah, you know and it was people the bad side.

Yeah,

you

know and the people who taught there were

Business people that would go in there urban.

We're not urban.

I know I

can anyway and she had a program and really 30 40 kids would be in the class That's a lot.

Yeah, see wow and just look out for this look out for that look out for this

I saw a thing just very recently.

Maybe it's in one of your articles like within five years like 60% of businesses like restaurants fail

Yeah.

I mean,

it's

incredible.

But also, I mean, you have a lot of restaurants in Green Bay.

Yeah.

There's a lot.

Like, I talked to a person who has several restaurants and he's like, you know, it's getting saturated.

It's a lot of the same things.

What have you found, Ariel?

What have you found with the ones that do succeed?

Is there a comment denominator?

Yep.

Yeah, I think the good food is one, obviously.

The uniqueness of it, of the food too, and the service.

I think those three things are...

you know, major.

Isn't that something about service?

You might have one employee that can do more damage than any advertising on the positive side, that one bad employee.

Isn't that the

truth?

And people do talk about the food, but boy, they talk about, like someone like me talks about the service more than the food.

You can see it in the review.

I think the food here is all,

I think, you know, the restaurants are all pretty good here, but I think what's good about all the restaurants is

the industry is good people are going out to eat more you know and that's that's great yeah whether you go out date night or whatever you do so where you're gonna go um is gonna depend on on the service friend price is not the most important thing for some people i

mean

it's really the service and the quality of the food so yeah restaurants are tough industry to get into um but

there's some people who do very, very well.

I get this, I got a kid in my class and all my family's into Italian food.

I'm like, oh, really?

Where are you from?

I'm from Appleton.

Victoria's.

I'm like, you're family owns Victoria's?

And we talked about why, and I think kids need to learn why they're successful, but you know, portions, I mean,

go to that.

If you throw Victoria's, what's the first thing pops in your mind?

He said that.

Lots of food.

That's what he said.

Huge portions.

I said, what percentage of people are to goals?

He goes to high.

Just a consistency too, right?

Yeah.

You know what you're gonna get.

COVID, I mean, they weren't open, but they kept

serving.

Or the Ariel Perez report at Green Bay Presca, is that?

And it's just, I'm really happy for the other students that they're gonna learn from this kid.

I mean, they

learn from me, but they're gonna, he's gonna share some stories.

And he wants to get into the restaurant business.

I'm not sure he wants to do the Italian thing, right?

Because he grew up in that, and

by the way,

it's a dude, you might want to take that over too.

40 years.

But there's not a lot of Italian restaurants in Green Bay.

There's a couple, and they're good.

Right.

They're okay.

He's Italian, he can say that.

I just want the smell of garlic.

We talked about the venting, you know, on College Avenue, you know, you kind of vent, you know, like Al's does too, right?

They vent the fumes out.

So when

we walk by, it's like, oh my God.

Smells good.

Yeah, it

just, those are minor things.

Ariel Bean, obviously from, you know, not from Green Bay, okay?

And now being, you know, a die-hard resident of Green Bay, what perspective do you have of this whole community

that somebody who lived here all their lives don't have?

I guess,

you know... And good or bad?

I think the first thing I would say is like I'm very much, I appreciate it a lot.

You know, having conversations with people, I learn...

It's difficult for me because I come from a place where people are always joking around.

It's partying all the time in a good sense of the word, not joking around and poking at each other.

Here, you have that, but I would say the first thing I notice here, people are very kind.

And in business,

The service is always there most of the time, whatever you go, if it's a store, if it's the good mornings, that doesn't happen where I'm from.

I think there's a lot to change in the aspect of the amount of people that is in the city.

It's not enough for businesses to grow, I would say.

It's like you get...

I try to give love to all the businesses that I cover, right?

Every now and then I go and eat there, I talk to the owner, I don't know how you're doing, how's business, some say that we're doing okay, others say, oh, we're doing great.

And for me, it's like there's not enough people for the amount of businesses, especially in the restaurant industry.

You can try it once, you can go once or twice, but...

You're not going to go every day, you know?

It's not cheap.

Going out to eat these days is not cheap.

It's getting a little bit more expensive there, for sure.

But we don't have the density to support.

And there's... No.

And, you know, you got... Look, Bellevue is growing.

Lambo is growing.

The population isn't growing to the same extent that...

But there's so much space!

There's

so much

land!

It's easy to... Well, a ton of Lawrence is exploding!

Yeah, it's growing too.

But you need density, you need people.

We feel sorry for it.

There's a business that we're pretty good friends with and they don't have a drive-through and it's...

It's just hard.

There's not enough people walking past their business to support

it.

Especially this area, for example.

Right.

What do we need

to do?

Right here,

within a hundred yards of us

downtown Green Bay, what do

we need to make the next step?

For example, downtown Green Bay, the organization is doing a lot to bring people, to keep people here.

But I think, I don't know, first, what I mean,

it's going that way, you know, you're building new apartments, there's new projects, now the coal's moving out, there might be an opportunity there for more buildings, more apartments, but I think you gotta attract more people from the outside of, you know, either the bigger cities in Wisconsin, Madison, Milwaukee, or other states, and you gotta make it more attractive with, I don't know,

Maybe low taxes, maybe, you know, more... How about parking?

Everybody complains about

parking in

this, and there's so much space everywhere, you can walk.

But parking tickets are so expensive here, it's mind-boggling, isn't it?

I only've had one in five years.

It's because you walk

everywhere.

I'm gonna be honest with you, I was at the library the other day.

Okay,

and I didn't have a quarter with

me.

It was like 20 bucks.

Yeah,

and it was it was it

was 10 minutes.

It was 10 minutes to six and I sat there defiantly without an expired meter.

I wanted a parking attendant come and try to give me a ticket.

I was gonna have an altercation.

They are too aggressive here.

They're not friendly.

They're not friendly.

Bingo card.

I was gonna have an altercation from John Lionel.

There you go.

Bingo card.

Ariel Perez, report of Green Bay Press, Gazette extraordinaire.

Back with more right after this.

You're listening to Civic Media.

Find the latest news, information, and archives of all your favorite shows on the Civic Media website, civicmedia.us.

Good thing we're having a race fight.

Jim was talking about the dumbest thing the city's ever done.

I said it was tearing down the mall across the street.

Oh, that's the best

thing we've done.

Ariel Perez joining us, Green Bay Presquizette.

Well, Ariel, let me ask you this.

Well, Green Bay, you know, we had the draft and the whole world was watching us and everything like that, which, you know, turned out fantastic.

But what do you try to tell people when you leave here and you go back to, like, Miami or wherever and they say, Green Bay, that little.

Podunk kind of town Green

Bay.

Well, one of the things I was just talking about before, you know people are nice I was telling Jim a story when we were talking about parking a couple months back.

I I was gonna park spilled and I see this truck leaving leaving and when I park and I'm gonna put some coins in the There were 10 minutes like a meter

Yeah, in the parking, there was 10 minute left.

So like, you know, so now every now and then when I'm leaving.

You know, I do the same thing.

I put up nice.

I put one or two coins and leave like 10, 15 minutes there and I leave.

That's awesome.

And that can make someone's day.

They pull up.

And you get a ticket.

You

were a

block

away.

Tell them about the story you got.

So, yeah, I I parked.

I went into Matt chicken.

Yeah.

So you get some chicken place.

Oh,

man.

And I didn't even see anybody go by.

Yeah.

And then I come out and there's a ticket.

Yeah.

$20 ticket.

And the thing is that I put like five minutes.

You know, I put a I only had.

a couple pennies, so I put a bunch of pennies, and it was like five, seven minutes.

And I just ordered the food and came out and I had a ticket, $22 or something.

Isn't that

amazing?

And what's sad about that is someone will take that out of Mad Chicken.