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News 12 Staff

RTCTPowerPolitics02012025BBlock430pm_2025-02-01-17-21-54

And welcome back. We are at 29 Marco Court right downtown. We got, uh, two beautiful chickens here we're gonna have for lunch. What do you think of these, huh? Well, I'm looking forward to fantastic. So for those who don't know Marco Court. Uh, this restaurant is on Markle Court. There isn't, it's such a small street. There aren't anybody really else on it. It used to be, uh, for those that like Middle Eastern food, it was a Turkish restaurant, uh, Star Istanbul, and I used to come here for, uh, hummus, you know, and then he would make, uh, some other Middle Eastern dishes for, for people, um, so good stuff and it's, it's, uh, uh, the best way to complement a restaurant. Um, for me is to say. The people I know that go out a lot to lunch and by the way, thank you for this beautiful lunch here at Marco Court in downtown Bridgeport, um. I don't go to lunch much even dinner, but if you're, I like the ones that I call restaurants snobs, and then you find out where they go and they only tell you I go to Marco Kor, you know, uh, or I go here. Those are the places you wanna go to. So, uh, bon appetit, this is wonderful. All right, well, you can have a little taste while I ask you the, the next question exactly, uh, so we'll finish up here. One more question on Trump. How do you navigate trying to work with, uh, the president and the new administration? Sure, uh. So It's interesting. I was counting. I think I've been, um, mayor and served, so to speak as mayor under 6 presidents, um, 5 governors, um, and as mayors and I was in Washington this, you know, short time ago for our conference right before the inauguration. And mayors act in a bipartisan way. We're probably the strongest group that, you know, potholes we say is in a Republican or Democrat issue. It's a, it's a mayor's issue. It's a local issue and we deal with that, um, so, um, so we work in a bipartisan way. I work with. The the president and President Trump and the Trump administration in the past with success he, um, and we knew him and he knows Bridgeport uh he invested he owned property in Bridgeport he donated that property to the city where we now have the amphitheater, um, so hopefully an infrastructure, uh. Agenda that supports what we're doing in Bridgeport now rebuilding the Congress Street Bridge finally with another $24 million from the federal government infrastructure money um will lend itself to job creation and our goal along with the governor's kind of challenge to grow cities to grow Bridgeport, Connecticut's largest city by population by 20% over the next 10 years, um, and, uh, continue that huge quality of life differential that people love in Connecticut and experiencing a city with great transportation and neighborhoods and. You mentioned the amphitheater and all the other amenities including, including if you're lucky enough if you're lucky lunch or at least dinner at 29 Marle Court or I have that bite here while I ask you a little bit about education now. So what, what is your hope for the school system here in Bridgeport now that the state board of Education is kind of taking over the reins? You know, challenges just generally. In public education In urban settings, Bridgeport, all Connecticut cities that I would say across the country, similar larger sized cities. Continue to be work in progress and the metrics that we use, I, I like to use is obviously the percentage that graduate, uh, reducing the dropout rate percentage of, uh, trickle it on to, uh, higher education. We wanna reduce the barrier we wanna increase that opportunity and reduce the barriers to that. Um, on a positive note, I just wanna let you know we're, we're starting a new scholarship program called Bridgeport Promise for Bridgeport students can be funded by millions of dollars in partnership with the Board of Ed. So that every Bridgeport High School student who qualifies on merit, um, and need doesn't have that stumbling block to begin uh to and and to to graduate from college. So that's important. We're seeing a transition now in the Butchwood Public schools. Our new superintendent, I have good confidence in him and I wanna thank the governor and the state board for stepping up and providing resources and assistance as they as they've announced this most recently to work with our superintendent and the city. Uh, to make sure that we close the, the education gaps, um, that we see the, uh, what is not just a budget deficit, but I think it becomes a challenge in morale for some of the hardest working people that contribute so much. Uh, in the roles in the classrooms as teachers and teachers aides and that really care for all in this case almost 20,000 students, some with special needs, physical or special education needs, um, to the point where, um, they do because they love it, but we wanna make it the best quality environment for both the students and the teachers, and that's the goal and I think what we'll see come out of this partnership with the state of Connecticut. What do you think of the traits of an ideal superintendent? Well, I gotta tell you without, without, um. If the uh. If the just now retired um Secretary of Education uh wanted to come and Coona wanted to uh kind of give us a helping hand with Bridgeport schools, uh, you know, obviously he did a great job as when he started as a superintendent then of course is. Secretary, uh, did so much, but our superintendent now who's acting is shown the ability and willingness to, uh, communicate, uh, be open and transparent about the challenges, um, and to also at the same time which I require of anybody that works with me in a leadership position to provide at least an answer or solutions as to how to solve the problem. That's how you create the strength of partnerships by acknowledging the problem in this case substantial budget deficit. Doing making the tough decisions and then identifying a course which we've identified or they've identified to the city and now we with the state uh that creates a a strong partnership with the state this chicken is delicious. What do you think? I think it's um. We're supposed to whisper because I don't want too too many people coming to 29 Marco Court for some of the best, uh, if you get lunch, find some of the best food you're gonna find anywhere, one of the top 25 restaurants in all of Connecticut, most recently, and we're gonna talk, uh, more with the mayor and have some more chicken when we come back.

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RTCTPowerPolitics02012025CBlock430pm

All right, we're enjoying our chicken here. Let's, uh, talk about the redevelopment of the PSENG property. It's a big deal here in Bridgeport. Is that iconic smokestack still gonna stick around? That's the question, right? Um, there's a lot of people that remember that and enjoy the continuation of the nostalgia of the and others are saying take it down, it's a symbol of the past and we're changing the image of the city. It's interesting. I don't think it would be such. To talker, but there seems to be a lot of people. I think the overwhelming is to support it's staying there and we'll have to talk to the developers, but regardless of what happens with that, that 25 + acre site is the most premier waterfront site, not just in Bridgeport, but I, I'd argue along this part of the coast. So the opportunity there, part of it being um waterfront usage, part of it probably housing can um. Really turn around and, and as you see happening with what we call Steel Point now with the boat docks and, and now the buildings going vertical there were 400 units of waterfront residential condos and houses, um, is gonna be a game changer for Bridgeport. And you know we talked a little bit about the beautification projects, the murals we talked about the Bridgeport being the what I call the whether it's a music mecca or the entertainment capital of Connecticut now with the amphitheater, uh, being the premier amphitheater, they say now in the country to do more and we're gonna have more and we have more going on, um, and, and not just central. On the downtown, although downtown is, is kind of really so robust, uh, not only with that, you have the comedy club, uh, right down the street, uh, Fay, Stress Factory, some of the other downtown restaurants, um, that, um, everybody enjoys and the other, and the other, um, you, you have the theaters too, the, the cabaret. B you so, so there's a lot going on. Um, we encourage people to continue and I'm gonna continue not only what we talked about with public safety being a priority, uh, our goal is to create more housing more affordable housing, workforce housing, um, in the city of Bridgeport for our growing population, um, with that, uh, comes with the infrastructure needs hopefully we'll partner more with the federal government on some of the things like the bridges, the Congress Street bridges I mentioned and. And, and the waterfront development stuff that we're doing so, uh, so it's exciting a lot more work to be done, um, but there's nothing wrong with taking a short break to come to 29 Markle Court and that some of the best food, uh, that you're ever gonna have the opportunity to to come out and enjoy. Our thanks to Joe Ganim. That's all our time. I'm Mark Sudall. Thanks for watching.

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On this week's Power & Politics, News 12's Mark Sudol speaks with Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim about how immigration and education are impacting the city.

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Power & Politics: One-on-one with Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim

On this week's Power & Politics, News 12's Mark Sudol speaks with Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim about how immigration and education are impacting the city.

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