What happens when a landmark means more to residents than officials ever expected?
In Bridgeport’s South End, that question looms over a 500-foot red-and-white smokestack long known as the “candy cane.” The towering structure was left standing after the decommissioned Bridgeport Harbor Station was demolished last year to make way for a mixed-use development. The smokestack is scheduled to be imploded later this year, but a growing group of residents says the stack should remain standing.
For Harrison Gordon, the smokestack has always been more than concrete and steel.
“I’ve always associated it with home,” said Gordon, a 22-year-old photographer who grew up seeing the stack dominate the skyline. “It’s something really iconic.”
Gordon launched an online petition in late November to save the smokestack, initially drawing a few hundred supporters. Since then, momentum has grown, with more than 1,900 signatures and over 1,400 additional supporters donating or sharing the effort online.
In a recent update on his petition page, Gordon said a standing-room-only South End Neighborhood Revitalization Zone meeting on Feb. 12 showed strong community interest in saving the smokestack. He argues that if the demolition were delayed until late 2026 or early 2027, it would give advocates time to explore preservation or adaptive reuse options.
“They don’t just see it as some old industrial relic,” said Gordon of those who share his hope to preserve the structure. “They see it as part of their heritage and part of their identity.”
But not everyone shares that nostalgia.
To some South End residents and city officials, the structure represents decades of pollution and the health consequences that accompanied it. Among them is Jorge Cruz, a deputy majority leader on the City Council who represents the 131st District, which includes the South End. Cruz says the smokestack is inseparable from the neighborhood’s environmental burden
“It’s a killer smokestack,” Cruz said. “It affected so many lives, including my mom, who experienced extreme asthma, and other families around the area.”
Cruz argues that nostalgia cannot erase environmental harm. With redevelopment planned for the site, he believes removing the smokestack is part of a long-overdue reset for the neighborhood.
“I have faith in the developers based on all the configurations they showed us,” Cruz said. “The skyline is going to change. It’s going to be beautiful. We need that in the South End.”
Gordon acknowledges the environmental injustices imposed on Bridgeport residents, saying the structure harmed public health for decades. But he also argues that it serves as an icon that reminds the city “we have come a long way, and now we are working towards a cleaner, brighter future”.
“For the past 30 years, it’s really been more about it as a symbol or a monument, as opposed to being something functional and harmful,” he said.
He also points to its scale and visibility. Rising 500 feet above the South End and visible for miles, the smokestack is an unmistakable marker of Bridgeport to travelers by rail, road and water.
As demolition looms, Gordon says the petition is about more than saving a single structure.
“This is about the people of the South End and downtown,” he said. “It’s about giving them a platform. When you combine nostalgia, history, symbolism and the recognition of environmental injustice, you have an incredibly strong case for why the stack should stay.”
