Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim is in Turkey this week for COP31, the U.N. climate change summit.
His plans for the trip weren’t shared with city officials, including City Council President Jeanette Herron, who is supposed to fill in for Ganim while he’s gone, until he was already there.
“Typically, the City Council President would be formally notified of the Mayor's planned absence,” city Communications Director Constance Vickers said in a statement to WSHU. “This was an oversight in direct communication, and we will ensure better communication ahead of any future planned events.”
The U.S. did not send a delegation to COP31 for the second year in a row. However, some American leaders attended on their own; they include Ganim, California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz (D).
Ganim participated in a panel on Thursday with other American mayors titled “US Climate Mayors Building Resilient Communities and Thriving Economies.”
“There may not be every national leader of every country at this event; ours from the United States government is missing,” Ganim said. “But we said this when we were in Rio as well: the mayors have shown up on a local level where subnationals are making a difference and having an impact. And why? Because we want to get things done.”
On the panel, Ganim spoke at length about the city’s journey to closing the PSEG power plant, one of the last of its kind in New England.
It was shut down in 2021 and mostly demolished last year.
“Not only did we see reductions in things like asthma for children who lived around the plant, but we were able to garner millions of dollars from the company in order to put money back into the community and try and do what we call environmental justice,” Ganim said.
“But also today on those 33 acres of waterfront, formerly industrial with that power plant, we're now servicing our residents, creating jobs, attracting investment, and bringing what I like to call exciting opportunities to that part of the city, our South End,” he continued.
The city has received $22 million from the state of Connecticut to demolish and redevelop the site. In its place will eventually be housing, commercial space, and public access to the waterfront.
Whether to tear down the red-and-white smokestack, known as the “candy cane,” has been an ongoing conversation amid redevelopment talks. Demolition has been delayed while the city works on a fortification project to stop coastal flooding.
Some residents favor keeping it.
