Ricky Santiago on his motivation to run for KY House District 29 and vision for the office

Ricky Sanitago is running for the 29th District of the Kentucky House of Representatives. He talks about his son being his motivation to run, his day job, his Puerto Rican heritage, and his vision for the office...

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
All right, tell me about youpersonally. You have a family, and
yeah, so me and my wifelive and obviously in District twenty nine.
I have a four year old son. I've lived in the district since I
was about fourteen years old. Ilearned how to drive there. My first
job was a value market right thereoff of out of Loop. And what
was the job at value market?I was a cashier. See, I

(00:20):
never had that pleasure. I wasthe guy that unloaded trucks when I was
in college. Oh I knew Ididn't want to do that. Yeah,
that's why I have these enormous muscleslooking good, Terry. And when you're
a cashier, yes you meet everybody, don't you. Yes, yes,
yes, yes, but you knowit was it was definitely a learning experience.
Back when you know, our communitystarted getting, you know, immigrants

(00:43):
from all over the world, andI guess they peeped that I spoke Spanish,
so they hired me and it waslike, hey, how about some
customer service, right? Uh So, yeah, my first job was out
there and out of Loop, andthat was a parking lot. I learned
how to drive. That's a goodplace to learn. There's not that many
things they hit when it's six o'clockon a Sunday morning, exactly. I

(01:04):
learned that teaching my kids. Well, your son's only four, so it'll
be a while before you do that, but that's the perfect place to tray.
Well, if you ask him now, he'll probably make you drive him
somewhere. Is he rare and togo? He's ready to go, and
every time his grandfather shows up,he hopes in the passeng you see there.
Year olds are fun too. Bythe way, you're at a great

(01:26):
stage because he's still listening to you. Yes, yes, well you know
he's one of the reasons I'm running. You know, about two years ago
he was diagnosed with autism, andnavigating the world as a special needs parent
was one of the reasons that Idecided to run a great I'm aware of
a lot of inequities that we havehere, but when as you as advocating

(01:49):
for your son, the world looksdifferent and we can do much better,
that's awesome. I just saw thatpicture of him, and he's a beautiful
baby. Thank you, thank you. There's nothing better than dad pride.
Absolutely, I got some of thattoo. Okay, So your specialty in
your jobs, is it so Inmy day job, I'm the Digital Inclusion

(02:10):
Manager for the city. I workon bridging the digital divide and making sure
that families have access to the internet, skills and devices to join us.
In the twenty first century, everything'sbeen digitalized, so that's what I work
on. Yeah, we hear storiesabout people whose kids they don't have access
and homework gets a lot trickier.Yep, they're having to sit next to

(02:34):
McDonald's to get Wi Fi and exactthat's insane. Yeah, So those are
the that's my day job. Ontop of run in the campaign, I've
built around seventeen different computer labs acrossthe city. We've trained about four thousand
families and digital skills. So definitelyit's one of my pride and enjoy as

(02:55):
far as professional career. Previously tothat, I was in the Office for
Immigrant to under Mayor Fisher. Oh, I got you. Well, it's
great to have you and you wereDid you live in Puerto Rico for a
while, So I'm originally from PuertoRico. You gradually my family came here
in two thousand. My father gota job with the Social Security So that's

(03:16):
kind of like either you go oryou go. I went down there with
U of L and it was oneof the greatest trips I've ever taken.
That place is stunning. That wasso much fun. So you experienced the
Puerto Rico side. I got toenjoy Puerto Rico coming here at the University
of Louisville, and that was somuch fun. We got to go to
the practices, we met with coachPatino. That was so much fun.

(03:38):
We had actually a private team dinnerover at the Old that it was a
Mexican place of Main Street. Ican't remember. I don't recall either,
but so let's take us. Yesit was the Old Yes, yes,
yes, So we had a privateteam dinner and that was you know,

(03:58):
Carlos Arroyo, J. J.Barrea, you know that was that was
sweet, pretty good crowd to go. What are you going to bring to
District twenty nine if you get elected, Ricky Santiago, So I bring the
passion of the discipline as a publicservice, public servant, but also I
want to focus on families, makingsure that families have everything that they need
to thrive in our city. Careabout academics. We need to fully fund

(04:20):
public education. We need to ensurepublic safety, and finally transportation. I
don't know if you're taking a tripdown farn Creek, but with all the
things that are coming to District twentynine a new Kroger housing development, we
need a better traffic flow, weneed sidewalks, we need lighting, and

(04:43):
overall just better transportation projects down inDistrict twenty nine two to make it a
place where people love to live.Yeah, because Bartstown Road from Hurstbourne to
the Snyder is a trick. Ohyeah, I mean that is Listen,
I think you're in Los Angeles.I've canvassed all the way deep into close

(05:06):
to Fishermen's Lake. There's no sidewalks. I know development has been booming out
there, it has, it has, but the infrastructure has to match the
development. That makes sense. Andif you get into the state legislature,
obviously you got to get you gotto make alliances with people so that you
can try to get them to spendmore money on these issues that you're talking

(05:28):
about, because obviously they just camethrough a cycle. In the school district.
Particularly this one here is clamoring sayingwe need more funding for transportation.
Yeah. Absolutely, I think weneed to bring innovative ideas also it's maybe
the solution that we have in frontmay may not be it. We need
to diversify our revenue stream and lookfor other ways to fund public education as

(05:53):
well. How do we do it, Well, there's some things that could
be tax that are not being taxor there's some there's some taxes that need
to bring being brought back to thedistrict. I got youa public private help
as well, exactly other ways todo that. You mentioned public safety as
well. How do we bolster thatconcept? Well, you know, it's

(06:16):
interesting there's in District twenty nine weneed better patrols, but we also need
lighting. We need to make surethat the streets are safe for our children
and any kind of pedestrian that arewalking around. Those are the basic level
of safety is being able to seewhere you're at, and there's a significant

(06:41):
issue around the infrastructure of the roadsand the lighting. But also making sure
that we bring back law enforcement EMSand fire Yeah, because their ranks are
light as well, they're having ahard time hiring. That's correct. It's
a challenge in this community. Obviously, we see some of the outlying police
departments are staffed fully in the LMPDis not. We got to make that

(07:05):
more appealing as well. That's correct, all right, Well, it is
great speaking with you, mister Santiago, and I wish you well. Thank
you and a h. The nexttime I want to head to the Islands
with the team, I want to, I want you to go with me.
All right, I got to playgolf with my friends. That That's
one of the funnest stays I've everhad in my life. Let's go,

(07:25):
or if you need somebody to discussyou have a football in Spanish, I'm
your young Oh we're gonna be greatto say. Absolutely. What's your website
Ricky for twenty nine dot com,r I c K y f O R
dot nine twenty nine dot com.Perfect, appreciate it, Ricky Santiago,

(07:45):
Ricky four f O R twenty ninedot com. There's your site. Back
in a few on news Radio eightforty WHA s