Madison Wisconsin with Rick Rose
[00:00:00] Intro: Welcome to the Where Do Gays Retire Podcast, where we help you in the LGBTQ plus community find a safe and affordable retirement place. Join Mark Goldstein as he interviews others who live in gay friendly places around the globe. Learn about the climate, cost of living, health care, crime and safety, and more.
[00:00:22] Intro: Now, here's your host, Mark Goldstein.
[00:00:31] Mark Goldstein: Do you wonder what it's like to retire in Madison, Wisconsin? Well, stick with us and find out. Today we have our guest, Rick Rose. And, uh, Rick, uh, is from the Twist podcast with Mark McNeese, and Rick retired on December 31st, 2023, with 35 years and 21 Emmy awards under his belt as a producer, writer and director.
[00:00:58] Mark Goldstein: He began his work as a [00:01:00] public service when he was elected as Dane County, Wisconsin County Board Supervisor, for which he will aim for re election on April 2nd, 2024. All the best to you on that. He's an advocate for the disenfranchised serving. As a CASA, which is a court appointed special advocate, volunteer in three states, as co chair of Pride in Prevention, focused on harm reduction within the queer Peewood community, which is people.
[00:01:35] Mark Goldstein: who used drugs, and as a fierce feminist. He also writes regularly for the Word in Season, a daily Christian devotional, which is translated into 30 languages. He resides in Madison, Wisconsin, having moved there from Shreveport, Louisiana. Welcome, Rick. Welcome to the podcast. I'm so glad you joined us [00:02:00] today.
[00:02:00] Mark Goldstein: So tell our audience, you move from Shreveport, Louisiana, to Madison, Wisconsin. Why the move? It's kind of like Shreveport, Louisiana. opposite climates. And tell us a little bit about that.
[00:02:13] Rick Rose: Yeah, thank you so much. It's a pleasure to be here. I've been following you on social.
[00:02:19] Rick Rose: And of course, Mark and I promote you on the twist and vice versa. So it's nice to have that opportunity. I absolutely love the way you say Shreveport, Louisiana, because that's how we say it down there. Not much else going on down there. So we got to beef it up a little bit. But yeah, the move is interesting.
[00:02:33] Rick Rose: These days we can talk about weather, right? It's all the same anywhere anymore. So even in Louisiana, uh, We'd have days where I'd go into the opera at night and step into the opera. And it was 70 degrees outside and come out. It was 20 degrees in the course of three hours. And here in Wisconsin, it's the same, you know, so, but ultimately we've also had, you know, 90 days of 100 degree weather down there.
[00:02:54] Rick Rose: And here in Wisconsin, we might have a long haul of below zero snow every day. [00:03:00] So yeah, it's different. And then culturally there's a big difference between people who grew up in the South and people who grew up in the North. Right. We just talked about that last night. The warmth of Southerners was very inviting in, uh, kept me there for 11 years as a Yankee with Northern blood, having never lived in the South.
[00:03:16] Rick Rose: I think it was that warmth that kept me there, Mark. And I will also say it was kind of the cold that drew me back up here to Wisconsin. I love the four seasons and I love winter, which we're sitting in the middle of, and I'm delighted to look out at snow this morning. So I'm just one of those guys.
[00:03:31] Mark Goldstein: Cool. Yeah. I mean, Hey, I'd rather right now. I'd rather see snow from a picture on Facebook myself. And that's why I moved from New York to Phoenix with a little stop in Florida. But, uh, but I totally get it because yeah, at least, you know what, in the freezing cold, if you want to get away to the warm weather, I know you do.
[00:03:54] Mark Goldstein: So, you know, you can go anywhere. So that's. That's great.
[00:03:58] Rick Rose: Yeah. And conversely, try to [00:04:00] encourage people to come up here, even offer them snowmobiling or something exciting. And yeah, I don't have a lot of takers.
[00:04:08] Mark Goldstein: Well, yeah, you know, there are many people who enjoy that, uh, you know, the cold and the winter and the skiing and stuff.
[00:04:17] Mark Goldstein: So you should
[00:04:19] Rick Rose: get takers. I hope so.
[00:04:22] Mark Goldstein: So tell us where is Madison located in the state of
[00:04:26] Rick Rose: Wisconsin? Yep, it's smack dab almost on the border to Illinois, right? So you go to the bottom of the state, almost smack dab in the center. So if you're looking at the mitten, which is kind of the shape of Wisconsin, with Door County being the thumb.
[00:04:40] Rick Rose: Just go to the bottom of the base of your hand where your wrist is and it's right dead center in your wrist. So, uh, perfectly located if I might say. Yep. There you go. Good. There it is. Yeah. Yeah. Quite close to Chicago. Very close to Milwaukee. Uh, not far from Minnesota. So I think when you look at Midwest cities, it's, uh, it's perfectly located.
[00:04:59] Mark Goldstein: Why'd [00:05:00] you pick Madison? Like, why did you choose Madison out of, you know, anywhere to move when you moved to Shreveport? What
[00:05:08] Rick Rose: drove you? Yeah. So I am a Wisconsinite by birth. And yeah, born on a kind of closer to the door County area for point of reference as we talk about the hand. It was work that brought me back, you know, like we said, I just retired.
[00:05:20] Rick Rose: And so, and a mother who's 82 and to be around them, Mark was really important to me.
[00:05:25] Rick Rose: I was not understanding what everybody loved about Madison. And now I will tell you six years later I'm happy here and I'm happy to have retired here. Yes. .
[00:05:35] Mark Goldstein: Cool. I love it. Love it. So tell us, let's get into the climate and the summers. Is it does it get hot and humid?
[00:05:44] Rick Rose: It does. You know, we have a lot of lakes.
[00:05:46] Rick Rose: I'm looking kind of, at some statistics, basically February, March, April, you know, you're talking about 30 to 50 degrees.
[00:05:53] Rick Rose: You get into May and you get into the summer months, you're talking, you know, early summers in the seventies, you can hit a hundred degree day, [00:06:00] but that's rare. But because we have lakes, we don't have that arid, you know, uh, dry heat like you guys have and we don't have, certainly you referenced Florida. I reference Louisiana.
[00:06:09] Rick Rose: We don't have that muggy hot either humidity. Yeah, it's just a perfect hot if you will. Not too dry, not too moist. That's
[00:06:18] Mark Goldstein: great. Yeah, that's great. And how much snow do you get in the winter?
[00:06:24] Rick Rose: We can get a lot of accumulation. You know, it varies from year to year. This year we had a stretch of about three weeks where There was at least two feet of snow on the ground for that entirety.
[00:06:36] Rick Rose: Uh, there's currently snow here. Snow can stretch usually we say from Halloween to Easter. I mean, you can see white on the ground off and on with most consistency in the middle of, uh, middle of that. So like this time of year, now we'll say, I also do spend some time in by this kind of where my mom is, but the high school up and by this County, which is way near the UP of Michigan, if we look at the mitten [00:07:00] again, you know, we're tapped with.
[00:07:01] Rick Rose: get topped with this little band that goes out, which is the upper peninsula of Michigan. And when I go up there, you know, usually it's abundant snow for recreation, like snowmobiling and cross country skiing, the things we talked about. But this year, sadly, I think it's the only time in history I can recall.
[00:07:15] Rick Rose: We never even were able to open the snowmobile trails. And so we have more snow in Madison than in northern Wisconsin. So, you know, you know what I'm referring to here. We, it's just unpredictable, but overall, yes, it's a wintry environment. Yes. We get a lot of snow and yes, it is cold,
[00:07:32] Mark Goldstein: but I'm sure that the city takes care of it and plows everything out really well.
[00:07:40] Rick Rose: They do a little controversy this year and the mayor had to respond to it. The practices of plowing are different now. And I think a lot of it has to do with people being more litigious and more danger if a school's energy shuts down from a ice storm or, you know, a bus derails because of snow. So school closures are more [00:08:00] common.
[00:08:00] Rick Rose: And I think that's also because we're used to world of video. You know, having kids been educated for two years on the video realm. But we also practice differently. We don't use salt in the city anymore. You know, there was too much damage to cars. Yeah. So we use sand and they'll plow not like when we were kids, they get out and plow all the time.
[00:08:17] Rick Rose: They had to get us to school. Now they're strategic about how they plow. And they care about safety. And so they'll encourage you just to stay in for, you know, sometimes 24 hours before they really get out and plow. So hearing the plow out there means it's safe to get back out, but yeah, I mean, they do take care of it, but you know, people are still kind of coming down on the city of Madison for not.
[00:08:37] Rick Rose: You know, doing it soon enough, if you will. We're also, let me point out, cause I find it interesting in my video work. I did a video on this, one of my most favorite videos. We also use cheese brine because we have so much, we have so much waste from cheese processing that in cities and counties where there are cheese plants, they take that brine.
[00:08:56] Rick Rose: And they use it on the roads. Yeah. [00:09:00] It's kind of unique. It's a unique thing. And that's kind of cool. Yeah. Smells a little cheesy, but it works a little cheesy. Yeah, it is a little cheesy.
[00:09:09] Mark Goldstein: I wonder if it smells.
[00:09:10] Rick Rose: Yeah, it does a little bit. Yeah. It does.
[00:09:15] Mark Goldstein: Okay. So tell us is living in an LGBTQ plus neighborhood or community important to you?
[00:09:24] Mark Goldstein: And if so, did you choose one? Does Madison have one? Does it happen like a gayborhood?
[00:09:30] Rick Rose: Yeah, you bring up a really, you know, the first part of the question, I wasn't anticipating, you know, guys that are listening, guys and gals. Mark does a great job. And when you spend time together, kind of talking about what we're going to talk about, which is great because it means there's a lot of thought planning into it.
[00:09:44] Rick Rose: And I have been thinking about this all week. I didn't anticipate the first part of it. No, it is not important for me to live in a queer environment. It is not. However, I would not live in Florida. Not just because of the climate, but because certain states are aggressive against the queer community.
[00:09:59] Rick Rose: So I [00:10:00] wouldn't I wouldn't look to locate in a community that is anti queer or, you know, intentfully attacking. But on the other hand, I'm not looking for a community. I wasn't looking for a community that had gay services and gay community and gay bars, et cetera, et cetera. Now I am blessed. Madison is a university town.
[00:10:18] Rick Rose: I think that's really key part of our conversation here. Mark, you won't find a lot of natural Madisonians. As a matter of fact, I was talking to it. Editor who edited for the Blood Daily News, which is where I went to college is nowhere south of here. Last night I had dinner with him and his wife and Bill said that, and you may know this from your work, that usually a community every five years has shifted its population by 50.
[00:10:41] Rick Rose: 50 percent of the population has changed. That has to do with retirement, bringing people in or people going has to do with births. It has to do with jobs. So every five years, you're kind of looking at a new population consistently, however, because we are in a university town. I would suggest mark.
[00:10:56] Rick Rose: There is a liberality and a progressiveness in Madison that we all know.[00:11:00] You know, people refer to us as Portland. I want to say we're beyond Portland. It's a little different. I, uh, it's an intellectual progressiveness that I really enjoy about being here. And therefore the gay community is quite prevalent.
[00:11:11] Rick Rose: We have a community group, uh, community organization that profit called outreach. When you mentioned PIPC earlier sitting on that pride and prevention team, that is a partnership between outreach and other harm reduction facilities. So what I love about outreach is they have. Incorporated into the community beyond just being queer.
[00:11:29] Rick Rose: They just want to make sure the queer voice is heard and taking care of whether that's harm reduction, whether that's affordable housing, whether that's food security. So I do enjoy that and a lot of credit to my friends. Steve, A. J. Tara, all those people. I'm giving him a shout out smart so I can take that.
[00:11:46] Rick Rose: Thank you. They do great work and I'm proud to say I live in a city and also if I'm going out for a cocktail at the end of the day or before a meeting of the Dane County board, I must admit, sometimes I do have one liquid libation to kind of calm my [00:12:00] nerves. That will be at a game bar called Shamrock.
[00:12:02] Rick Rose: And it's probably one of the oldest, uh, bars in the Midwest. So a shout out to Bobby at Shamrock for keeping that as a stump. Yay Bobby, you know how rare that is to have a community with a game bar, right? I mean, it's not as common
[00:12:13] Mark Goldstein: anymore. Yeah, that's true. With all the apps here in Phoenix, we do have quite a few.
[00:12:19] Mark Goldstein: And we have a, you know, pretty large gay community here. The thing is, yeah, I agree with you as far as I would not live in a place. In fact, if you look at the HRC MEI, Municipal Equality Index there, they have this year said that certain states are under state of emergency. Meaning cities within that state have, you know, just gone ahead and done some anti LGBTQ bills and stuff like that to harm the community.
[00:12:55] Mark Goldstein: So, I would not live in any one of those [00:13:00] states.
[00:13:01] Rick Rose: No, sure. And to put that in context with our conversation here, I will say that when that study came out and defining for the first time, I think HRC actually used those terms that you're using state of emergency. That is the week that I fired up as a legislator and created trans sanctuary for our county.
[00:13:20] Rick Rose: I was hearing stories from parents who said their kids were afraid, you know, this was the time. Okay. Okay. Okay. Like you and your husband experienced in florida when people were migrating out of florida because they have trans kids where parents, maybe I shouldn't get on this path because I do get emotional, but where parents were fearful to raise a child, you know, and so I stepped it up and it was very controversial.
[00:13:40] Rick Rose: It's a very long meeting, but we were the first county in the country. To do a trans sanctuary, uh, and protect our trans community as a result of the study you're sharing. So, even though we're liberal and progressive here, there are still a lot of haters and there's still just a lot of people that are ignorant and lacking knowledge that we need to show that, you know, we get to [00:14:00] hurt you.
[00:14:01] Rick Rose: We're not here. Thank you.
[00:14:02] Mark Goldstein: Thank you. And thank you for what you do and you deserve the biggest hug.
[00:14:08] Rick Rose: I take it. Hug hug. Thank you, sir. You're
[00:14:12] Mark Goldstein: welcome. So, okay, so does Madison have actually a gayborhood? Could you walk down, like, streets and you see gay bars or gay establishments, businesses, or is it just integrated?
[00:14:25] Rick Rose: Yeah. Not as your listeners would know. It's just integrated. Uh, Shamrock sits near the Capitol, but it sits in the, you know, group of other taverns, you know, we're a big tavern city, you know, old school taverns, you know, bar tops. I go back 200 years. It's funny because two of the bar tops for two of the rest, you know, we're also in major development, right?
[00:14:45] Rick Rose: We're in major growth. We're expecting our population to increase over the next, everywhere's facing this, but Madison in specific is growing hugely. And Yeah. I think we're expecting 25, 000 new people in the next couple of years. And so these older buildings are being torn down, [00:15:00] but when they are, the bar top mark is actually preserved and given to the new building that goes there.
[00:15:06] Rick Rose: So in one case, Silver Dollar, which is being torn down for a museum, Wisconsin History Museum, the bar will actually be the bar top in there. And in another case, one of my favorite establishments called the Avenue, which was torn down, they took the unique bar and they built it into the floor of the new.
[00:15:21] Rick Rose: Children's symphony rehearsal hall, which is built there. So it's a little, you know, we're a little into our alcohol and things, but uh, yeah, no. So there's no real gay neighborhoods there. There are more like, there's a place called, we call it Willy street, which is Williamson street. That's more like the hate Ashbery, if you will.
[00:15:38] Rick Rose: So it's going to be prone to have, you know, maybe more, uh, queer residents. But as I'm going through my head, no, there's not like. If you were moving here and you said, Hey where do I want to be near? Uh, queer community. No, I would say that, you know, we probably skew way more than what people still define as 10 percent of us are queer.
[00:15:59] Rick Rose: Right? That's [00:16:00] ridiculous. But I would say, uh, there's not a neighborhood where you'd be unsafe living as a queer person.
[00:16:06] Mark Goldstein: That's cool. That's cool. And why do you think Madison is going to experience so much growth?
[00:16:12] Rick Rose: You know, it's interesting before the show started here, I had told you Mark that USA, uh, I'm sorry, us news and world report put out their best city index and it's based on many things.
[00:16:22] Rick Rose: These things are based on transportation, affordability of housing. Quality of life, recreation, all these things, right? And so we were rated number three this year. That's phenomenal. And I think a lot. Yeah. And I think a large part of it is for the things we're talking about. It's we have tech jobs.
[00:16:39] Rick Rose: There's a lot of gaming companies here. I look at the average age of people living here. And to be quite frank, you know, we're kind of talking to the retiree community. If you don't like being around young people, don't come here. You know, it's 35 to 38 is the average median. You know, of age, we're a little above on the pay index.
[00:16:58] Rick Rose: We are voted often is [00:17:00] the safest and best place for women to live because of equality of pay. We have a lesbian mayor, my friend Satya is our mayor, one of the first elected lesbian. Yes. Yay Satya. Now we can take her too. No, Satya has been a pure joy to work with. But because of that, I think You know, all of those issues and I think the progressiveness of the city environmentally.
[00:17:20] Rick Rose: We're a great city just last week. I think we passed 100 percent uh, renewable energy and all of our county buildings. I'm going to applaud John Welch who runs are so important. Yeah, it is. You know, these are people. He's our director of those kind of works. You know, that relate to waste management.
[00:17:36] Rick Rose: Yeah, it's just a fun city to be in. And I think also University vibes bring a lot of people in yeah, all that good stuff.
[00:17:44] Mark Goldstein: Yep. It sounds like I'm going to have to pay a,
[00:17:47] Rick Rose: pay a visit. Oh yeah. It's definitely a great time to visit. Yeah, for sure.
[00:17:52] Mark Goldstein: So, okay. How about meeting people? I know you're very outgoing and you know [00:18:00] a phenomenal amount of people.
[00:18:02] Mark Goldstein: Yeah. But how easy do you think How easy do you think it would be to make friends either in the queer community, gay community?
[00:18:12] Rick Rose: Yeah, and like you and I talked about in our pre call, you know, the good, bad and ugly, you know I want to say overall I'd probably give Madison a 90 percent? Please to retire consideration Part of that is it's not, you know, everyone says the Midwest is so warm.
[00:18:32] Rick Rose: I would argue that I actually like the harshness of New York. And I like, you know, I like the hospitality of the South. Like we've talked about. I found LA when I moved to LA, not to be a welcoming city. And I would put Madison there. I'm fearful to even say it. Cause now we're taking all these people.
[00:18:46] Rick Rose: No, I literally, I just wasn't making friends, you know, now I came from a community when I moved to Shreveport, Louisiana to work in film, I was embraced by everybody. So I was connected with [00:19:00] film industry people. These are people I hadn't talked to that were shooting there in from L.
[00:19:04] Rick Rose: A. So like Shreveport is also unique because unlike Madison, it has a lot of people that have lived there all their lives. But it also has a lot of freshness that comes in for 12 weeks to shoot a movie or a military base there, you know, Bossier City. So 9500. Members of the military committee come and live there for maybe two years.
[00:19:24] Rick Rose: So it's very transient, uh, population on top of a core of warm and loving people. But I think what we defined here in Madison with such turnover, it's really hard to make those connections. And I will shout out to my friend, Alejandra. Who was my realtor who comes from Miami, who is Nicaraguan, which ultimately I relate better to people that don't look and think like me.
[00:19:47] Rick Rose: I've just always been that way. And there's a lot of that in Madison. And when I got, you know, that friendship, she said, you got to meet my friend, Sky. Sky works in harm reduction. So therefore I was able to move into that realm. And then through Sky, I met other [00:20:00] people. So, you know, it's that connection. But for me, I don't feel from my experience and others that I've talked to.
[00:20:06] Rick Rose: Madison isn't like that warm, you know, welcome wagon. If people still remember welcome wagon feeling, it's not like that. You have to kind of carve it out. You have to go out and don't mind you. I'll tell you when I turned 59, a couple of weeks ago. I was very emotional. There were 50 people in that room that weren't, wouldn't have been in that room five years ago.
[00:20:25] Rick Rose: So, and there's what I view is very solid, trusted friends. Yep. That's
[00:20:31] Mark Goldstein: quite a bit. I know I see you online and social media with a bunch of different people everywhere.
[00:20:37] Rick Rose: Usually women, right? Everyone's like, yeah, so many girlfriends. I'm like, yeah, what's wrong with that? Yeah girlfriend.
[00:20:46] Mark Goldstein: All right, how about does it get more conservative as you go outside of Madison? How's that vibe or is it? You know, usually a city is very, you know, [00:21:00] uh, liberal and kind of safe for our community, but as you go out in the suburbs or it gets a little less and less, is that the same around? I
[00:21:09] Rick Rose: would say, yeah, you know, we're talking in this era after a Trump presidency and maybe before.
[00:21:15] Rick Rose: We won't even put it out there. But even the fact that we're considering another Trump presidency, you know, had I answered this question years ago Wisconsin, historically, you know, the capital is Madison. Wisconsin historically has been very progressive state as we know, and usually blue that's been lost to red, not because of Madison.
[00:21:35] Rick Rose: I mean, Madison, Milwaukee, Green Bay, like you referenced Mark, those are three largest population bases. Very different. Madison is a, uh, White collar, urban, professional, computer led city. Milwaukee is a little bit of a blend, but skews more still toward a blue collar and Matt and Green Bay is definitely blue collar, but usually those blue collar workers also are more.
[00:21:58] Rick Rose: You know, liberal minded, right? They want [00:22:00] things for their families and things like that. And Green Bay, by the way, did make that top hundred list. I think it was like number eight or nine. So it's also a likable city, but I think beyond those pockets. Yes. When I get up to violence County, you know, I'll refer to this.
[00:22:14] Rick Rose: When I was 17 years old. Now, mind you, that was back in whatever the eighties I wanted out. And I applied to be a foreign exchange student. I went to Japan. I knew, and I think that relates to my comment earlier. I've always wanted something other than what I was born into. Not that I mean, I take full pride in being a white cisgendered male.
[00:22:33] Rick Rose: I do. I'm not worried about that or ashamed by it, but I, uh, you get into those pockets. I left that area. I still go up there to see my family. Now, mind you, even within my own family, I'm the only Democrat. I'm the only progressive minded one. Do they love me? Yes. But in full disclosure, my brother and I aren't talking right now, right.
[00:22:52] Rick Rose: Because of some political belief differences. And so I think I just hit to the core of it. It can be very dangerous. Now, mind you get in your car, [00:23:00] go to Chicago, go to Milwaukee, like we talked about the other Minneapolis boy, there's great things happening in Minnesota, in my opinion great safety net up there for people, you know, with a really liberal governor, St.
[00:23:10] Rick Rose: Paul, just having its first all women city council with like, I think seven of the nine women being BIPOC. Hopefully that feeds in, but Wisconsin has become this hot seat, right? It lost Hillary day election. It's always looked at. You've got Ron Johnson and you've got Tammy Baldwin. What is that about?
[00:23:27] Rick Rose: Right. Can you represents our voice, Mark? I mean, the other dude, whatever his name is, Ron Johnson represents. It's the rest of the mass of Wisconsin, but fortunately the people by count, you know, I would say it's probably more of a progressive state still.
[00:23:44] Mark Goldstein: Do you have an escape plan?
[00:23:47] Rick Rose: Palm Springs.
[00:23:47] Rick Rose: Yes. Immediately. Book that flight. Do
[00:23:50] Mark Goldstein: you I kind of feel, and we were talking about this and my husband and I, we kind of feel better living in a blue state. Really? I
[00:23:59] Rick Rose: would bet. [00:24:00]
[00:24:01] Mark Goldstein: You know, but we don't live in a blue state, but it's turning blue and then you have the situation. Well, stay and turn it blue.
[00:24:10] Rick Rose: So and that's where I sidemark, you know, like we talked before we started rolling here. You know, you know, just full disclosure. I told Mark, you know, I feel old, but still relevant. And you said it also like you're doing this for a reason you want, you know, you've reached out, people are responding to you.
[00:24:27] Rick Rose: And likewise, my public work, I want to do it in Wisconsin. I'll tell you had opportunity to go back to Shreveport, Louisiana is kind of interesting, right? We know it's very red. Now a new governor in there has made it even more red. Louisiana, Wisconsin are very akin, by the way, we're party States. We like to drink full of life.
[00:24:43] Rick Rose: They have their foods. Like they're known for their foods, right? Like gumbo and jambalaya and crawfish. We're known for our foods, beer and cheese. Yeah. It's like weird. Like there's some similarities as much as I define the differences of the two, but some innate. innate similarities. One of those [00:25:00] options was to go back and run for mayor in Shreveport or to run for the parish.
[00:25:04] Rick Rose: You know, it's the only state that has parishes, not counties for those that may not know. I think most people know. I would not do that. I don't want to be struggling against a wall. I want to be, nor would I want to be an elected official by this county where my mom is. I want to be in Madison. I want to signal to the rest of the state.
[00:25:21] Rick Rose: I want to be My city, the capital, the state capital, I can walk into the state building, you know, the capital building and meet my friends that are assembly people because they're my neighbors or get in touch with our governor. God love our governor. You know, thank God he's got veto and that the superpower isn't there.
[00:25:39] Rick Rose: You know, we also live in a state where there's, you cannot, if you're a democratic assembly person here in Wisconsin, Mark, you can't introduce legislation. You have, it has to be Republican led that is ridiculous, but that's why I'm here. I'm more of the second case. I don't like the conflict, but I, it motivates me.
[00:25:58] Rick Rose: It's like that hoop of [00:26:00] fire. You got to jump through it and not let it hold you back. Good for you. Yeah. Well, thank you. Thank you. Applause for you. Yeah. Practicing my speech for April 2nd, I guess.
[00:26:10] Mark Goldstein: I'll be rooting for
[00:26:11] Rick Rose: you. There you go. Thank
[00:26:12] Mark Goldstein: you. Can you tell us what the local economy is like, example of, uh, of a single family home, two bedroom, two bath, approximate cost and rental apartment, two bedroom, two bath.
[00:26:27] Mark Goldstein: You have any
[00:26:27] Rick Rose: idea for sure. I do. I have a lot of ideas because sitting on there, we talk about affordable housing of the time. And it's sad. I mean, I think I've heard it said that there is no such thing as affordable housing anywhere. I'm just looking up in this story that came out today.
[00:26:41] Rick Rose: Journal Sentinel, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel did a story about, you know, our ranking in the U. S. News and World Report, and they broke it down with what those costs are. But I will tell you that I do know that we have, uh, An average house, uh, maybe 1300 square feet is going for 410, 000. [00:27:00] So, you know. Just 10 years ago, I remember a hundred dollars square foot.
[00:27:04] Rick Rose: Now we're talking about 400 square foot. Yeah, it's up there. Yeah, right. We've had supply chain, whatever. But yeah, I just, my friend, Ale, we hang and she just closed the house. And I, how big is it? She showed it to me for a young couple, just starting out 410, 000. But also this week at conversations with friends saying.
[00:27:21] Rick Rose: These young couples that are moving here because it's a good place to live. Like we described for youngsters, they can't afford to own a house. So that leads us to renting, right? I was with my friends. I'm going to shout out because we can take them Tom and Cassie the other day with another friend, Rochelle is a board supervisor like me, but on the younger side, we are on the East side of town, which is more of the, I'm on the East side of town, a little more progressive artsy West side is a little more established.
[00:27:46] Rick Rose: Maybe suburban people probably hate me saying it, but you get it for point of reference, they're paying 1, 700 for a one bedroom apartment. Wow. One. I, when I first moved here, I paid a thousand dollars [00:28:00] five years ago for a 550 square foot. Uh, what do you call it? Studio apartment studio. That's not good.
[00:28:08] Rick Rose: You know, and they do say, let's see, uh, monthly rent. Yeah. So here, uh, yeah, we're above the index for what most people make. We're at 58, I think the, we're at 58, 000 national average, 51, 000 or something like that. So on par with what people are getting, food costs are cheap. Energy costs is really cheap.
[00:28:33] Rick Rose: I know you were going to ask me about that. Like, I think my utility bills, I do pay for my own water, garbage pickup, uh, electric, all that stuff. I have a fireplace. I think I pay maybe 150 a month for that's those services. That's not a lot. That's not bad. For cold winters, it's not a lot at all. Oh
[00:28:51] Mark Goldstein: yeah.
[00:28:52] Mark Goldstein: Yeah. Yeah, we're just the opposite here. Really? Yeah, well, in the winter, even though it gets down to the [00:29:00] 30s, but not for long, it kind of warms up during the day. Right. But our electric bills in the winter are very low, 70. Oh, nice. Whereas in the summer. Yeah. It's like 250. That's crazy. Yeah, at least.
[00:29:17] Mark Goldstein: I've had, we've had bills. We just replaced our HVAC on our old, uh, system. We topped, and we're in a, we're in a condo. We're in a two bedroom, two bath, 1, 700 square feet condo, and we reached 300. dollars plus for the summer, you know, electricity.
[00:29:39] Rick Rose: That's crazy. Yeah. The exact numbers, the average annual salary in Madison is 59 five.
[00:29:44] Rick Rose: The average national average is 58 too. So we're just above that a little bit. Yeah.
[00:29:50] Mark Goldstein: So, groceries are. Pretty good as far as prices. Yeah.
[00:29:55] Rick Rose: If you like dairy, you won't see better cheese cases or ice cream cases. And you can go in and buy a pint of [00:30:00] ice cream, special ice cream, you know, for 4, or you can buy a gallon of milk for 2.
[00:30:05] Rick Rose: Uh, butter is cheap. Uh, but if you're not on my
[00:30:08] Mark Goldstein: cholesterol, there
[00:30:10] Rick Rose: you go. Or if you're like, I know some of those things, you know, it was still farming community. You can go to a local butcher. I know those are trending now. Charcuterie boards are trending. That's always been a thing in Wisconsin, you know, like, Last night I was at a restaurant in Beloit and you could get a ribeye, uh, this is rare cause this is owned by a butcher company that decided to make a restaurant.
[00:30:29] Rick Rose: I got a ribeye, not a ribeye, a prime rib, which is a big thing in Wisconsin for like 16 bucks. That's rare. In Wisconsin you might spend 32, but there are places in Madison where you can still dine for lunch at 10, which is rare as you and I know. That is good. Yeah. And You know, that's the exception to the rule, but when you get to know a city and the nuances, you know, that is another factor.
[00:30:50] Rick Rose: By the way, I think we have the largest privately owned restaurants per capita than anywhere in the country. We do have box restaurants, but we have tons of, [00:31:00] you know, international global foods that are owned by individuals. And that's pretty exciting to me.
[00:31:06] Mark Goldstein: Great. So, so we'll talk about, might as well talk about the foodie scene.
[00:31:12] Mark Goldstein: So, is there, like, do you have five star Michelin rated
[00:31:19] Rick Rose: restaurants? We do. We had a James Beard winner out of a restaurant called Fairchild last year. We have three, uh, James Beard nominees this year. One is my friend Vata. Call out to her. She has a place called Cocova Chocolate. She does pastries and chocolate.
[00:31:35] Rick Rose: And so she's up for a James Beard award. Uh, yeah, I'm not gonna lie, you're gonna pay 5 for a piece of chocolate, but it's good chocolate. We have another place called, uh, something in plenty. Pardon me. It's on the West side, but they got a James Beard for hospitality. Like that's a weird James Beard award for those that don't know the James Beard awards, like the Oscars for food.
[00:31:57] Rick Rose: So yeah, there's tons of places like that. I will [00:32:00] tell you just up the road from me on county end is a place called chicken lakes. And it is the best chicken wings in the entire country. And it's one of those things, like you tell your friends that are visiting, like, do you like chicken wings? And they're like, yes, I love them.
[00:32:12] Rick Rose: And you're like, you're going to have the best. And then they go and they hate it, you know, or, you know, it's like you tell about a great movie and they don't like, and you're like, shit. I'm never. Ever worried saying that because every time I bring someone in from Kentucky, New York, Reno, Nevada, they agree.
[00:32:28] Rick Rose: These are the best chicken and they're 10 a pound. So it's a good value. Yeah, I know. Chicken licks. Yeah.
[00:32:36] Mark Goldstein: Nice. Get
[00:32:36] Rick Rose: me hungry. Yeah. You like to let you like chicken, uh, wings.
[00:32:41] Mark Goldstein: Well, I try to stay away as much as possible because of, you know, when you get old, shit
[00:32:49] Rick Rose: happens. Well, yeah, they do an interesting thing called sexy.
[00:32:53] Rick Rose: You know, they have the off menu thing, like, they don't advertise sexy, but sexy style wings, you can go from a 1 to 10, [00:33:00] and that determines how much habanero, dry habanero they'll put on it. Yeah, it's one of those kind of places you would wanna stay away from. Yeah. . Yeah. But you got the milk to cool yourself, mark, so you're good.
[00:33:09] Mark Goldstein: That's right. Yeah. And then I'll you, yeah. Forget it. . Yeah. Yeah.
[00:33:14] Rick Rose: Me. And deep on this. I'll regurgitate. No, . You just can't win at our age, sometimes without bodies. I can't. Yeah.
[00:33:20] Mark Goldstein: I, Nope. Yeah. Getting old sucks, but at least it's better than the alternative for sure. But anyway, , does Madison have an arts and culture scene?
[00:33:33] Rick Rose: It sure does. It's quite huge. I mean, I think, you know, and I came from Louisiana where the music scene, no matter where you are, is big. And I think that we should emphasize our music scene more. We have a really good music scene. There is now a presenting company called Frank Productions. They have a couple venues that they own, a couple they present at.
[00:33:53] Rick Rose: And it's good stuff. Jonathan Van Ness. Was just here and now my job, of course, connection, I know him, I know his mom and it was great to [00:34:00] come and see him, but to see that packed house responding and goes back to our earlier point, you know, it may not be, you know, that we're living in Palm Springs, but we're living in a city where, and I will tell you, I would say 80 percent of that audience were straight identifying CIS folks and just the fact they understand non binary and understand what Jonathan stands for.
[00:34:21] Rick Rose: It was so heartwarming. And that's. Uh, Frank Entertainment, they just announced Robert Plant and Elson Krauss coming for a show at one of their venues. Yeah I just saw Violin Femmes, which is a Wisconsin band. I don't know if you know that, but they just came to one of these venues and played music and then we have small music venues, you know, with local musicians and that's really nice and they arrange, you know, countries big in Wisconsin, not so much here, but you can go out and see a country band.
[00:34:47] Rick Rose: On New Orleans on Fat Tuesday last week, I could go to two different options where they were playing jazz music, you know, like, good jazz music. As far as the visual arts, yeah, I actually am proud to say that I'm sitting on my second Dane [00:35:00] County Arts Commission. Panel as a panelist to judge those and it's really worthy.
[00:35:06] Rick Rose: Uh, last one we gave some dollars to Martin Luther King Day celebrations, which included dance and music and spoken word. We have a comedy scene here. I got a shout out to my friends on comedy on State Street. You know, we get acts in that are huge. Yes, we get tons of Saturday Night Live. Uh, uh, punky Johnson was not, was here not too long ago.
[00:35:25] Rick Rose: A lot of the, uh, Colin. Jost from Saturday Night Live was here. Uh, Tyler Tomlinson, who has her own series now. She came and recorded stuff there. So the comedy scene, Mark, is really good. And then we also have an alt community, you know, speaking to our audience those deviants that are on the LGBTQ spectrum.
[00:35:45] Rick Rose: We have a progress. huge. And we have a club that does different event S and M events. They do. horror picture show. They do uh, things that [00:36:00] y necessarily, you might fi Known events that my friends participate in. So you got me excited. I forget how good our art scene is here. It's really quite
[00:36:10] Mark Goldstein: good.
[00:36:10] Mark Goldstein: There you go. And theater and
[00:36:11] Rick Rose: you, Oh yeah, we have the overture center. We had production of Les Mis here last night, but we'll also have small, there's small venues in there. We have a family called the Frouchy family. So they also own Mrs. Frouchy, who still goes by her maiden name. They, she created American doll, which was based American girl, which was based here in Madison.
[00:36:30] Rick Rose: Now, sadly. It's in a little community called Middleton, which is an offshoot of Madison, sadly, they announced they're moving the corporate office to Mattel's corporate office Mattel had acquired them years ago. So we're laying off 30 people, which is sad. But yeah, that family has given so much to our community In the arts.
[00:36:48] Rick Rose: So yeah, we're fully funded. We have lots of patrons. Yeah, it's pretty exciting. Yep.
[00:36:53] Mark Goldstein: Wow. That's definitely impressive It is All right. So how about [00:37:00] Public transportation. I hate driving. Do you really? I'm a native New Yorker. Yeah. So I rode the subways all my life. Yeah. Yeah, then when I moved to Florida, I was kind of forced into driving.
[00:37:15] Mark Goldstein: So I had to drive to and from work and stuff like that. Were
[00:37:18] Rick Rose: you in Orlando? I forget.
[00:37:20] Mark Goldstein: No, I was in a suburb of Tampa.
[00:37:23] Rick Rose: So you dealt with traffic every day?
[00:37:25] Mark Goldstein: Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it was bumper to bumper every day. I remember one day I was stopped at a red light, I take, and the light turns green. I take my foot off the brake and I'm like, why isn't this going?
[00:37:41] Mark Goldstein: Why isn't this? And just picture miles of traffic in the back of me with lanes, like four lanes. And I was up front. And when the light turned green and I couldn't go and I'm like this, I'm like this in the [00:38:00] car, like, move. And it just didn't, the battery died just like that. And yeah, it wasn't fun, but there was a nice good Samaritan who came out of his car and helped me push it off to the side.
[00:38:15] Mark Goldstein: Oh, so
[00:38:17] Rick Rose: that's my biggest nightmare. It is. Yeah,
[00:38:19] Mark Goldstein: there was. It was. I was like, Oh my God, what do I do? You know, so yeah. So I'm not a fan really of driving and here in Phoenix. We have the light rail right across the street from where we live. So, that could get us around, but we do have a car, and Hubby tends to be the major driver.
[00:38:44] Mark Goldstein: Oh, that's nice. So, like when he gets injured and has to go into surgery and can't drive, I'm like, alright, I have to drive to the store. Okay. So, yeah, but I'll get over it. But anyway, does Madison have public [00:39:00] transportation?
[00:39:01] Rick Rose: Yeah, I will say overall, I just looked back in 2019, even wallet hub voted as number five for public transportation and number three, uh, according to livability.
[00:39:10] Rick Rose: com for best places to live in 2019, mostly due to transportation. Now we'll say, is it a city you can go without a car? Like you're suggesting, Mark. I'd say we're working toward that, but we're not there yet because we are an isthmus city. I should point out one of the few isthmus cities, isthmus is different than an island.
[00:39:26] Rick Rose: We have a small narrow passage with Lake Mendona on one side, Lake Mendona on one side. Literally you can be on. So our main corridor is called Washington. So East Washington goes from the East side to the Capitol. West Washington continues on from the Capitol to the West side, which I was describing earlier.
[00:39:42] Rick Rose: Very unique design. You get to the Capitol area, which is the dead center of. A community of 600, 000 people, you know, only 250 in the city, but 600, 000 Madison proper. You can see the lake to the left and the lake to your right. It's that narrow of a strip. So we have [00:40:00] Beltline, which goes around. We have different ways around it.
[00:40:02] Rick Rose: You can go country roads. We still have a lot of those which are beautiful to drive. But I would say I have one friend, and I have a lot of friends, only one friend I know who does not own a vehicle, and she lives in the heart of the It Smiths. But she does have those car services where you can rent a car for an hour or two hours.
[00:40:17] Rick Rose: We have bikes that are available. We don't have the little, uh, scooters. Uh, I think our city views them too dangerous. If you go to the university or work in the heart of the isthmus, which most of that would be university employees or university students some university. like you and I who have w have never left Madison o even professors who have to Madison because they l settle in downtown.
[00:40:43] Rick Rose: That the main street there. Th need a vehicle. But then We just put a lot of mone A lot of applause again to Satya. She's recognized by the Biden administration. Uh, Pete Buttigieg's husband was here. She did a private party for [00:41:00] him. I think she, she's in tune with what's going on transportation needs. And we just did a whole new, we're in the process of changing them.
[00:41:06] Rick Rose: But June 1st, it launched their electric transportation. They go out to our little communities like Middleton, I referred to on the east side of the community of Sun Prairie. Which is the hometown of George O'Keefe might have point out just two minutes from me. So you can grab those. They're putting heated pads out.
[00:41:23] Rick Rose: So they've just reconstructed along that whole route to put heated pads. They have bike ability where you don't have to strap it on. There's like room for five bikes because biking is a big thing. So may not be your thing, Mark, but if you're a bicyclist. There are trails everywhere. I could bike to work.
[00:41:39] Rick Rose: I could bike downtown. A lot of companies have showers built into them. A lot of companies have yoga rooms built in because we're a very healthy community as well. I think we're the number one city for Ironman one or two in the country. We were host for five years to the, crossFit competition here in Madison.
[00:41:55] Rick Rose: So Madison is known to be a fit city, so a lot of transportation, [00:42:00] uh, can also be natural transportation and we're a small enough footprint that you can use that. Now. You mentioned
[00:42:06] Mark Goldstein: heated pads. Is that like a place to wait for transportation?
[00:42:09] Rick Rose: Yeah, like standing on a heated floor in your bathroom, like
[00:42:12] Mark Goldstein: standing on a heat.
[00:42:14] Mark Goldstein: Oh, isn't that nice? Yeah, it's important. Do you have like light rail or trolleys or,
[00:42:20] Rick Rose: well, we are the state. Mr. Walker, who killed unions when he was governor, Scott Walker. This is still gets mad, right? When I think about his leadership, uh, denied the federal dollars that were coming in for a light rail. God only knows why, but we are now on the list to be a center for Amtrak.
[00:42:41] Rick Rose: So we're looking at three locations in Madison to locate Amtrak. And so that'd be very good. We are, you know, conversely, we're in a bad spot for sex trafficking, for drug running, because we are between Minneapolis and Chicago, right? So there's a lot of. I think that's in every city, but I would suggest we probably have more of an issue than Phoenix, uh, [00:43:00] because of where we're located.
[00:43:01] Rick Rose: But at the same time that rail, that Amtrak will be a vital piece to move people through you know, on longer trips and be able to benefit from them. Maybe spending a night in Madison, like your listeners might want to say, Hey, I'll stay in Madison, right? Who knows? That's right. That's right, guys. I'll show you again.
[00:43:17] Rick Rose: Yes,
[00:43:18] Mark Goldstein: absolutely. Yes. So yeah, they. Amtrak has to do a better job at what they do, because I think we lack, we're so far behind Europe. Like you look at Europe and they have these bullet trains and they have rails that you can get anywhere. And in fact, they stop. I know Spain is, like, halting local flights to different parts of Spain because they want everyone to use the rail, and it's quicker,
[00:43:54] Rick Rose: and it's cheaper.
[00:43:55] Rick Rose: Wow. Yeah, we can guide use, right? We can have FortSight in [00:44:00] these master plans to do that. So I'm looking forward to that. I will say to, we have a regional airport that is phenomenal. Dane County Airport. We just put an expansion on Kim Jones is the director there. Shout out to Kim, but it's a, it's great.
[00:44:13] Rick Rose: And we have, we passed a rule in Dane County that For instance, the bathrooms aren't just handicapped with the changing table. They're adult changing tables. They're very expensive. I think they're like 35, 000 each, but we are requiring in any new building that we put, you know, we're really big on equity here in this city.
[00:44:28] Rick Rose: Just looked at a master plan for a park, a County park, a lot of conversation the other day was not about accessibility for those of us that are older and don't walk well anymore or anybody that's got a disability. We don't want to segregate anybody any longer in a. Disabled parking lot with five handicapped spots, and then your family's parking over here.
[00:44:47] Rick Rose: No, they are really our park director. Laura Hicklin is really working on integrating that. So we're not looking at accessibility anymore. We're looking at inclusivity and how we all experience it. Not like [00:45:00] here's that Braille plaque anymore. We get emotional about this. It is really a wonderful city. If you are, you know, if you are lacking mobility and you have other challenges, it is a wonderful city to look for those Equal rights you have.
[00:45:15] Rick Rose: We really protect those rights here and we go a long way to make that happen. And you will see it when you travel, you're going to go, wow, that's an adult changing table. Maybe only use once a day. That's impressive. It, thank you. I,
[00:45:26] Mark Goldstein: I'm super proud of the work. That's
[00:45:28] Rick Rose: impressive and it's important. It is important and even the messaging of that, just sharing that to your listeners.
[00:45:32] Rick Rose: Oh yeah. Makes me feel good. Yeah. Yay,
[00:45:37] Mark Goldstein: yay. Yay to Rick.
[00:45:39] Rick Rose: This is for Dane County. Yeah, I'm really not using this for politics. I really, from my heart, having been an elected official, I encourage any of you in retirement to really consider it. It's a wonderful thing. I mean,
[00:45:50] Mark Goldstein: it's great. This is what this is.
[00:45:52] Mark Goldstein: This podcast is all about. I want to find out and our audience to find out what it's really like living in a [00:46:00] place. So yeah, it is great. And that's what I want to bring. So you're doing it. Yes. Kudos. So on to the next, Oh, real
[00:46:10] Rick Rose: quick health care, real quick before we hit healthcare, big topic in the arts world, being a movie file, we lack good arts movies, which is weird, right?
[00:46:20] Rick Rose: You're looking at me like the hell you got all this going on. You don't bring in good arts movies, one theater on the West side. And I will go and waste gas to go see that movie because I want to see it on the big screen. I'm not a little screen guy. But just so you know, if you're looking to live in a city where you can be fed by it.
[00:46:34] Rick Rose: international film and queer film and a Madison. So just throwing it out there. We got some work to do. Got it. Got it. Thank you. Healthcare. What's your question? Sorry. We got
[00:46:42] Mark Goldstein: excited. Healthcare. So, are there a sufficient number of doctors to the population? How long does it wait? If you need to see a specialist, how close is the nearest hospital?
[00:46:54] Mark Goldstein: How many hospitals does Madison have?
[00:46:57] Rick Rose: Yeah, that's good. You know, you look at hospitals are [00:47:00] one of those love hates, right? They run like a non profit and people donate to them. It's like, what the hell are you donating to them? They're charging me a fortune. As a matter of fact, so, so, okay, let me step back.
[00:47:10] Rick Rose: Uh, we have UW Madison here, which is huge and it's a huge medical community. So we have tons of residents. So let 82. We'll drive down or someone will drive her down. And she has all of her medical providers here. She goes to the geriatric doctor. She has a, uh, orthodontist. She has everything here. She will go out of her way to Madison, just a three hour drive, three, three and a half hours to get the care she needs.
[00:47:34] Rick Rose: I myself, who have lived in LA during the AIDS pandemic, who have dealt with prediabetes in my life, who have, uh, eye issues, you know, like major, uh, eyesight issues I have never in my life had better healthcare because of the UW. We have an insurance company that works with them called Quartz. 30 co pays maybe.
[00:47:54] Rick Rose: We have BadgerCare for people that are, you know, not quite on medic. I [00:48:00] always get them confused, but not quite old enough to be on Medicare. You can get Medicaid or if you're an employee, Medicaid is great. You pay five R copay. It's free teeth cleaning, free, you know, uh, whatever. I have many friends that have faced unemployment because of age insecurities.
[00:48:16] Rick Rose: Uh, in full disclosure, I am currently on BadgerCare, right? I retired. I didn't have something set up to carry on my insurance. I'm not making enough because right now I'm figuring out what I want to do with my life, Mark. I'm probably living off of. 2, 000 a month and I'm doing okay. Mind you, I have a roommate, you know, given the cost of whatever.
[00:48:35] Rick Rose: I have a big place. So having a roommate is nice with my travels. Uh, he's kind enough to take care of my plants and stuff, but, uh, I'm on banjo care and I am so grateful for it. So I think we have equality and pretty good equity. We have three major hospitals. I think health care is abundant. There are great practitioners here.
[00:48:53] Rick Rose: A lot of research being done that comes out of Madison. We have a program called UW Extension. Again, shout out to my friend, Kerry, who runs that, [00:49:00] where they take the studies that are coming out of the UW, whether the agricultural studies or medicinal studies, and they make them transferable to the public, either through workshops or classes or you know what the extension does.
[00:49:12] Rick Rose: They run 4 H, but it's great. So we have this, we're not separated. Like here's, UW, and here we are, like a lot of college counts, it's integrated into our, uh, into our lives. So that's a wonderful. Wow. Yeah, it's great. Yeah. Yeah. I'm very happy with our health
[00:49:26] Mark Goldstein: care. It's so important. Health care is one of the most important things.
[00:49:30] Mark Goldstein: Like, you know, Phoenix is pretty good.
[00:49:33] Rick Rose: That's what I hear. Yeah. You have a Mayo down there too, don't you? Somewhere in Arizona? We
[00:49:37] Mark Goldstein: do. Yeah. Yeah. We have Mayo. Uh, it's in North Phoenix or Scottsdale border right there. And yeah, quality,
[00:49:45] Rick Rose: quality healthcare. That's important for anybody. Although I don't
[00:49:49] Mark Goldstein: know if I can get in there.
[00:49:50] Mark Goldstein: Like if you need something, it's like you have to make an appointment and you know, they're so like high, you know, upper trustee. [00:50:00]
[00:50:00] Rick Rose: Yeah. That's an issue here too. You know, I'm fortunate. I have a mental health provider. I have a physical health provider, but And the wait wasn't as long when I moved here five years ago.
[00:50:10] Rick Rose: So I think what you're describing is probably more of a national crisis than a, that's, I don't know from people you've interviewed, but I think that is a pervasive national issue.
[00:50:19] Mark Goldstein: It is. And it's time we did something about that too. I'm not
[00:50:23] Rick Rose: ready to run for a U. S. anymore. I don't think we want to take, neither you or I want to take that on.
[00:50:29] Rick Rose: No.
[00:50:30] Mark Goldstein: But, uh, you know what? Healthcare shouldn't be a
[00:50:33] Rick Rose: privilege. Amen. And again, let's learn from our European friends. Listen, I'm all about socialism, and I think Madison is a perfect city to explore socialism. But we're not there yet. So. Yep. Yep. Okay, so. Uh oh, did we lose some viewers on that comment?
[00:50:49] Rick Rose: Are we losing some folks? No. Okay.
[00:50:52] Mark Goldstein: So, are there, can you like, how far is the hospital? I mean, like, let's say you need, you have an emergency. [00:51:00] Is it like. Half hour
[00:51:02] Rick Rose: 15 minutes. No, that's an excellent point. So like I said, we have an east side west side It's very Kent Danny. Like you said Phoenix and Scottsdale Minneapolis st.
[00:51:11] Rick Rose: Paul Bozer City and Shreveport. We have everything on the east side. We have on the west side, right? There's a TJ Maxx on both sides. There's whatever. We have the same with hospitals. Now I will say where I'm fortunate is I am literally five minutes from most of my care providers on the east side. We built a brand new hospital complex, but it's good for the UW.
[00:51:29] Rick Rose: We'll focus on female health. We'll focus on transgender health, which is awesome. We'll also focus on oncology. Emergency room here, but sometimes you have to go to the big hospital, if you will, the on the west side and that the farthest it would take me to get there would be 25 minutes. So that's, yeah, it's doable, you know?
[00:51:48] Rick Rose: Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, accessible for sure. Physically.
[00:51:52] Mark Goldstein: Excellent. Excellent. Let's talk a little bit about crime, even though we don't like to really talk about it, [00:52:00] but it's everywhere, unfortunately what is it like in Madison and what's the the homeless population also like? Ooh,
[00:52:10] Rick Rose: yeah, they're the outhouse committee is larger here than I would like it to be, especially in a cold environment.
[00:52:14] Rick Rose: You know, I remember when I lived in LA and go to Santa Monica, it's like, basically those people aren't going to die from the cold. We do lose people last year. I think we lost two, two residents. That's what I should call it. Houseless. I think that's a new thing. Is it housed? Or I think I heard you on a twist.
[00:52:30] Rick Rose: Yeah. Yeah. I think we did on the twist. I mean, frankly, I'm just learning these words because I have to as a elected official. And it makes more sense. You know, like truthfully, we don't refer to the people living in our jail as inmates. That's ridiculous. These are residents just like we are. They just happen to be in there.
[00:52:45] Rick Rose: And so again, honestly, Mark, that's the tone of Madison. You know, you may have listeners that are going, wow, that's way too out there. I'm liberal, but that's way too out there. But I got to warn you, if you come to Madison, that's just the way we speak and the way Yeah, and I will tell you, I always [00:53:00] describe it this way, if I bump into someone in the store because I'm ignorant and didn't see them, they apologize for being in my way before I can apologize that I hit them.
[00:53:08] Rick Rose: It's just it's just this wonderful place that way. But back to your point, I think this study that I keep referring to, one of the factors is they look at crime. I think, let's see. A large part of it is, you know, quality of life and safety issues. We had 10 homicides last year in Madison. That's pretty low.
[00:53:29] Rick Rose: Now I will say two of them were children and teenagers in the district I represent. And a lot of it has to do with how we're approaching affordable housing right now. We're moving it out to the East side. where we don't have youth centers. And so this is a major issue we're working on. We have the land, we're building these complexes, we're putting people in there that are already challenged, uh, mostly based on the fact that they're people of black or brown skin.
[00:53:56] Rick Rose: In Madison, we call it the tale of two cities, I'm gonna be honest with you, [00:54:00] and we do struggle still with racial equality. As progressive minded as we are and in action, we are, we still haven't taken that in. So we have the highest level of black male incarceration of anywhere in the country. Black folks make 30, 000 less a year than white folks.
[00:54:18] Rick Rose: We have a lot of single moms that are black that are dealing with their kids. And in both of these cases, this young boy and young girl that were killed, they were both, uh, single moms in the same freaking building. Because we, we haven't. We're building this without building community. And this is an issue.
[00:54:37] Rick Rose: So overall you can say, wow, Madison safe, you know, and honestly I have female friends, you know, they don't think like you and I mark, like I finally realized a few years ago, like if I was women, I'd have to think of safety different because I'm a CIS man. I don't, you know, but my female friends will walk downtown on the CIS miss and feel so safe, which they wouldn't do.
[00:54:56] Rick Rose: When they're in Colorado, even but the problem is it is [00:55:00] safe that way. And there was years, I think there was like a, I'm not exaggerating here, maybe a 20 year stretch where there wasn't a homicide in Madison. It just didn't exist. And now with again, national issues, you know, gun availability, all that kind of stuff, you know, we're running a risk and we're really finding it in youth in Madison.
[00:55:19] Rick Rose: And that is a problem and it's black youth. And so I don't have more to say about it. You know, truthfully, that's not your community. You're probably very safe. But until everyone's safe, none of us are safe. And so, yeah, it is somewhat of an issue, but that's pretty low compared to other people you talk to, right?
[00:55:39] Rick Rose: I'm guessing. Oh,
[00:55:39] Mark Goldstein: absolutely. Is it? Yeah. I'm comparing it. Well, Phoenix is probably 10 times the size, but. Yeah. Yeah. And we get 10 homicides, maybe a day.
[00:55:50] Rick Rose: Yeah. I mean, Shreveport, Louisiana, one of the most dangerous places to live. It's awful.
[00:55:54] Mark Goldstein: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, you're doing good on the crime scene too.
[00:55:59] Mark Goldstein: And. [00:56:00] The homeless population and the government is doing something to get them off the
[00:56:04] Rick Rose: streets. They are. We have, you know, at least what we start with is bringing it to the attention of the community. We do, you know, press releases and forums and, you know, elected officials and people working in those departments will bring it up.
[00:56:15] Rick Rose: We do have an issue again, talking about youth because we're growing so fast. We have a lot of youngsters is with those 38 year old people that most of them have kids, right? My pastor this morning shared at church, our church, the average number in a Christian church. of adults to kids is ten to one. Ten adults for every kid.
[00:56:34] Rick Rose: Our church is three to one. Three adults to one kid. And that is typical in Madison. You will see a lot of kids. You will see a lot of single moms because again, the safety issues for women, transgender freedoms, you don't have tons of single moms that have transgender kids. And they say phrasing here and healthcare, uh, equality, but we have to work on this youth issue.
[00:56:55] Rick Rose: So if you're a retiree that doesn't want to be around kids. Or pets. Frankly, we [00:57:00] allow pigs in our city. Now, I think we allow chickens in our city. Now they're doing a hearing to allow goats. Again, we're a little too liberal. No, Mark, it's for real. I just was talking to the mayor the other day. She's like, yeah, Rick, I think we're going to get goats in the city now.
[00:57:14] Rick Rose: Now you're going to have goat
[00:57:15] Mark Goldstein: milk. Exactly.
[00:57:19] Rick Rose: Right. But, uh, if you honestly, and I get it, I get, if you don't want to be around youth, Madison's probably not for you, but if it is just know you're going to also hear stories of the challenges we have with youth. And back to my point, Madison municipality school district, MMSD put out a study of how many unhoused, again, this is where I get emotional youth there.
[00:57:41] Rick Rose: There are a lot of kids in our school system that live in a car. Or our youth that are in a guardianship situation, you know, and yeah. Is there a,
[00:57:50] Mark Goldstein: is there an organization, like, I know we have an organization here in Phoenix for unhoused youth that are
[00:57:59] Rick Rose: [00:58:00] LGBTQ? That's fantastic. We need to do more work in there, but yes, we do have programs, but I will tell you, as a court appointed special advocate, I had a young man that was not getting along with his foster home, could not by court be returned to his home for that day, and as his ward, it was up on me.
[00:58:15] Rick Rose: Oh, by then I actually was not as advocate. I had become his guardian. So I was his guardian of the state. He had turned 21 and I'll be damned. I couldn't find a bed for him anywhere. You know, and that was heartbreaking. And in Wisconsin, a guardian is not allowed to take the child in their home. A lot of States, the guardian often takes care of that child.
[00:58:35] Rick Rose: Wisconsin is not the case. But there it's lacking. It's there. We know it. Yeah, I think. This conversation made me very aware of areas I need to be poking and others that I can continue to break on. So thank you, Mark, for that gift to me. Thank you, Rick.
[00:58:50] Mark Goldstein: It works both ways. Yes. So what do you wish you had in Madison that you don't have that you might've had elsewhere like
[00:58:59] Rick Rose: [00:59:00] Shreveport?
[00:59:00] Rick Rose: I'd say immediately a film scene. We had in Shreveport, it's a wonderful place called Robinson Film Center. Always had new movies and programming and a restaurant upstairs. It was one of those, you get the food and bring it down. Even our, we have one venue that still does that. Our other venue, that's huge.
[00:59:14] Rick Rose: You still got to get the food and bring it in. We don't have this. And honestly, we don't have a movie going. I think maybe this is national. Everybody's streaming, but like God love film, man. I mean, and having worked in film, I guess I know. The artists behind film, Mark, are film artists. They're not TV artists.
[00:59:31] Rick Rose: They're designing these projects to be seen on a big screen. We got to keep that alive here in Madison. And so yeah, I think I miss that the most and I miss crawfish. I miss crawfish a lot. I miss seafood. I mean, yeah, we have okay sushi, but being where we're located. We're kind of lacking of some of the wonderful gifts that you may get in L.
[00:59:50] Rick Rose: A. or in New York. I'm sure you miss a lot of the food experience in New York, right? Oh, I do.
[00:59:54] Mark Goldstein: Yes. Yeah, I mean, I grew up with, I don't know, the delis [01:00:00] and, you know, Chinese food. Chinese food, everything. Just walk through Manhattan, Little Italy, Chinatown, Oh, La Mela. Even a good steak at Peter Luger. Yep,
[01:00:14] Rick Rose: Yep.
[01:00:15] Mark Goldstein: So Yeah, I miss the
[01:00:17] Rick Rose: food in New York. Me too. Have you ever done a segment on Vegas?
[01:00:21] Mark Goldstein: I have not, and if you know somebody, let me know. I
[01:00:24] Rick Rose: probably do. I mean, that's a pretty up and coming city for the food scene. Yep. Yep.
[01:00:29] Mark Goldstein: I am looking for somebody from Vegas. Cool.
[01:00:33] Rick Rose: Oh, but they gotta be a retiree, right?
[01:00:35] Rick Rose: All my friends there are young. That's okay. I'll
[01:00:38] Mark Goldstein: find someone. But if you come across somebody, let me know. Sure. So, okay, and What are the cons? I know we went over a few but living there, you're there for six years now, right? Right. And what would you say are the biggest cons?
[01:00:57] Rick Rose: I think still I feel a little isolated.
[01:00:59] Rick Rose: This is just [01:01:00] personal. Like I want to live near a body of water and we have the great lakes, which are a wonderful gift. When I was in Milwaukee, I lived in Milwaukee for nine years. It was different. You lived on an inland sea, right? It was one of the five great lakes. Lake Michigan was nearby. Personally, I, there's a lot of outdoor recreation.
[01:01:15] Rick Rose: No doubt. You can drop, drive three hours and. You know, even in being the middle of wildlife, I sit out here. I can see a wild turkey on my street right now. We have blue herons that are abundant down here. For some reason, we have deer, you know, like it's, uh, it's that's there. But I just think You know, we have state parks, we have county parks, they're all wonderful.
[01:01:37] Rick Rose: But I think being isolated, you know, even in the food stuff we're talking about, or, you know, just think of it where we're located is kind of Midwest middle, you know, it tends to, and it kind of lacks a sense of pedestrian, like I do miss. You know, my friends come to Louisiana, like you're so clean. The city is so clean and they are right.
[01:01:58] Rick Rose: We're a German run city, right? There is, [01:02:00] I think 74 percent of us have German heritage here and you know, probably all suffer with OCD. But the reality is I miss a little funk, Mark. I miss be on edge in New York. You know, I'm not sounding arrogant, but it's sometimes too safe here for me. Like a
[01:02:19] Mark Goldstein: little
[01:02:19] Rick Rose: excitement, you get it.
[01:02:21] Rick Rose: Right, you'll never find a bathhouse here. You know, not that I'm a bathhouse guy anymore, but right But I'm very accepting of a committee that you know is welcoming to those things. So I yeah, it's a little different that way
[01:02:35] Mark Goldstein: Yeah, I hear you. I hear you. Yeah, but as far as water is concerned too. I mean Palm Springs has really no, I know, right?
[01:02:44] Mark Goldstein: No
[01:02:44] Rick Rose: water, but you've got the mountains in both, right? I mean, get out, hike and stuff. We don't really have that, right? Like skiing cross country, like we referred to, but downhill. Nah, there's nothing really. I mean, there are, but it's so I just
[01:02:58] Mark Goldstein: did a. [01:03:00] Speaking of Midwest, I just did a podcast on Sogatuck.
[01:03:04] Rick Rose: Oh my God, talk about a great queer community, right?
[01:03:06] Rick Rose: It always was. I won't tell you what they used to call it. Do you know what they used to call it? No. For gay men? Well, it kind of rhymed with Sogatuck, but we won't get into that. It's an art scene too, right? There's a huge art scene.
[01:03:19] Mark Goldstein: Oh, yeah. I enjoyed the conversation. It's great. I want to listen to that one.
[01:03:24] Mark Goldstein: That's cool. Yeah. It should come out in a few weeks. Cool. Yeah. So, okay. In wrapping up, what would you say to our audience if they're thinking about relocating to Madison?
[01:03:36] Rick Rose: Yeah, I would say, you know, the German thing just arousing me. It's the spirit of meet the kite. So meet the kite is really just this hospitable word, like come and party with us.
[01:03:45] Rick Rose: It's similar to Louisiana where we say bone template. I don't speak French. I speak German, but like the good times roll with Mardi Gras praise and stuff. Wisconsin has that spirit of giving me the kite, you know, whether it's found in our October fests, we have a lot of celebrations. [01:04:00] Milwaukee. I mean, Summerfest is the largest music celebration in the entire country built around Summerfest are all these week long.
[01:04:07] Rick Rose: They have an Italian Fest and Irish Fest. There are more people in Milwaukee during Irish Fest than there are in Dublin. It's like Irish people like they fly to be in our thing. So I think if you like And you like to get out and do things that experience cultures that are still protected. Like, you know, like we honor European cultures here.
[01:04:27] Rick Rose: We still celebrate if you're Czech, like I had in trouble sometimes I'm like, what's your ethnicity? And people are like, what the fuck you asking me that for? Pardon me. But cause I love it. You know, it's not safe asking those questions much anymore in LA or Phoenix, you know, that's off guard. So there's that.
[01:04:42] Rick Rose: But then there's that sense of, Respect that I talked about, you know, and truly community involvement, having your voice heard. It's wonderful. Last week at our board, we passed an anti Semitic, so anti Semitic uh, language of resolution, anti Islamophobia, and [01:05:00] passed a resolution for ceasefire that was sent to Baldwin and Johnson and the president to ask for a ceasefire.
[01:05:05] Rick Rose: These came about by the citizens of in Dayton County. So, you know, I think we're one of only 10 cities that did a ceasefire thing. You can say that's really not in your purview, but if we don't signal how we feel here to the greater world, that's a problem. So, yeah, so that's what I would tell you. If you want to come and have a good time and are a little on the liberal progressive spectrum, this is the place for you.
[01:05:31] Mark Goldstein: Great. Great. And do you have Do you have a Native American community? Ah, I'm
[01:05:37] Rick Rose: so glad you asked. We sure do. We have
[01:05:40] Mark Goldstein: And I, I don't mean to interrupt you, but if you hear drums in the background, I happen to live across the street from one of the largest Native American museums. Come on! I don't know if in the United States or the world, but it's called the Herd Museum, and I'm right across the street, and they're having a festival right now as we [01:06:00] speak.
[01:06:00] Rick Rose: Wow. That's cool. Yeah. Do you go? Or you bet, obviously. Well, I'm
[01:06:07] Mark Goldstein: right across the street, so I I you know, when I'm walking the dogs, I see, and it's huge. It's like they have tents out there, and.
[01:06:15] Rick Rose: Yeah, it's crazy. That's so cool. Yeah, I will say in a lot of my work over those 35 years, uh, in a lot of the Emmys, one of the recent Emmys was on a Ho Chunk artist that I won an Emmy for working on that with my friend Casey Brown, who is a member of the Ho Chunk community.
[01:06:29] Rick Rose: We are on Ho Chunk land. I did a tour recently with some legislators, uh, from the oral perspective of Native Americans that our school did go to school. We are the first, uh, university to pass full scholarship for anybody with indigenous blood. You can get a free ride at UW. We have 11 federally recognized tribes here in Wisconsin.
[01:06:49] Rick Rose: They go from Ojibwe, uh, to, uh, to, like I said, the Oneida Nation, but also the Menominee Nation. Potawatomi. I worked at the Potawatomi Casino. We have a lot of casinos in Wisconsin. A lot of [01:07:00] retirees like casinos. We have a lot of native casinos. Yes, they do. They do not serve free alcohol. So that's one rule in Wisconsin makes us a little different from gambling.
[01:07:07] Rick Rose: We have two urban casinos, one in Madison, one in Milwaukee. We're building a new one in Beloit. But then if you look at the heritage, yes, we just funded a new heritage center for 200, 000. I'm very proud that I did a resolution for honoring indigenous people's day. And so we're one of the first counties, I think the second county in the country to do indigenous people's day as a holiday for the county.
[01:07:26] Rick Rose: Yeah, thank you. And so, yeah, that we are really embracing. You know, I'm glad we ended up here because we're taking it back to the roots of it. But when I did that college tour, what really touched me, we have more mounds, you know, native mounds than anywhere in the country, if not the world. And we literally, if we recognize those, and I will predict within 20 years, we could be a UNESCO site.
[01:07:51] Rick Rose: That's what our tour guide was telling us. It's so pervasive. And finally, as you know, with the movement of really honoring. That would land, uh, you know, [01:08:00] acknowledgments and things like that. Yeah. I mean, you live in a place that's totally filled with that in general, anywhere you go, but we're finally recognizing that.
[01:08:07] Rick Rose: How did you even know to ask that question? I'm curious. Did you know Wisconsin?
[01:08:11] Mark Goldstein: I just heard your previous conversations, maybe on the twist about that. So I was like, Oh, that's a good question to ask. Yeah, because No, it is, and the drums are going right now.
[01:08:25] Rick Rose: Yeah. . Yeah. I love it. I love drumming services, but my friend actually is the executive director of what's called, uh, n uh, native American Tourism Association, whatever.
[01:08:36] Rick Rose: So what they do is they promote Native American tourism now. So that could be anything from going into Bad River or Redcliffe and going through, you know, the reserve. And experiencing kayaking or natural beauty, but it could also involve learning the history of the mound. So we are really building out tourism.
[01:08:55] Rick Rose: My friend Kimberly's really working on building out tourism that still respects it. A lot of one [01:09:00] of the big festivals that I referred to earlier was the largest in the country. It was called Indian summer 25 years. They just ran out of funding, but they had an art circle and they had an education and they had.
[01:09:11] Rick Rose: It was great. So the celebration continues here. We're also close to Canada, so, you know, we, there's a lot of that going on. So, yeah, great. I'm glad I asked that. Yeah, I am too. I got excited.
[01:09:25] Mark Goldstein: All right, Rick. Well, I want to thank you so much for. You know, joining us on the podcast, it was really, uh, uh, it's definitely an experience.
[01:09:34] Mark Goldstein: I really knew nothing about Madison and now I leave with a feeling like, you know, that's a place I want to visit.
[01:09:42] Rick Rose: Well, you are always welcome here with your husband and I mean that from my heart, like I have a good. I'll take you to see a good time. I'll show you a
[01:09:51] Mark Goldstein: good time. I know you do. I know you do it.
[01:09:54] Mark Goldstein: I know we did. We'd have a great
[01:09:55] Rick Rose: time for sure. Oh, thanks Mark for this opportunity. Thank you all for listening. [01:10:00]
[01:10:00] Mark Goldstein: Yeah. Thank you. And we'll talk soon. Okay. Rick, thank you again. Thanks guys.
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