Veto stands, Columbus statue stays
Council fails to override mayor’s decision to keep controversial monument
The common council on Wednesday failed to override the mayor’s veto of its decision last month to remove a statue of Christopher Columbus after two Republican members switched their original votes.
The 8-6 vote means the monument to the inspiring Italian explorer or rapacious slave trader, depending on the various views of city leaders and their constituents, stays, at least for now. Ten votes were required to override Mayor Erin Stewart’s veto.
“I stand by my original veto message and I am glad other city council members shared my concerns with the original resolution,” Stewart said Thursday.
“The door to my office always has been and continues to be open to those who are interested in having productive conversations on how to move our community forward.”
In a statement condemning “cancel culture” last month, the mayor warned that taking down the monument would set a bad precedent.
“Where does it end?” she wrote. “Are we going to examine the battlefield tactics of (Revolutionary War) Generals (Tadeusz) Kosciuszko or (Casimir) Pulaski to ensure they adhered to the social mores of today?”
Democratic Alderman Chris Anderson, one of the most outspoken voices demanding that the statue be taken down, said Thursday that advocates of removal “should not be discouraged.”
“I thank them for their persistent calls and letters over many months and for the attention they brought to this difficult issue,” Anderson said. “Stay engaged, stay involved, and let’s see what we can accomplish together this year and beyond.”
Rules do not allow the council to take up the issue again until after the November 2021 elections, he said.
The failed override was the latest twist in a local culture battle that began with the nationwide campaign to pull down Columbus statues after the George Floyd
“The door to my office always has been and continues to be open to those who are interested in having productive conversations on how to move our community forward.”
protests in June. Republican leaders and Italian-American groups in New Britain largely pushed to keep the statue in McCabe Park, while Puerto Rican activists, the New Britain Racial Justice Coalition and council Democrats argued it should be moved off city property.
The arguments largely mirrored those in cities across the country: Columbus’ defenders portray him as an intrepid explorer and symbol of Italian-American heritage, while critics say he was a genocidal slave trader and racist.
Nevertheless, several council Republicans last month sided with Democrats in a 10-4 vote to take the statue down. Stewart said advocates of removal never explained how the city would pay for the removal, nor what would replace the statue. She signaled that she might reconsider if the council provided detailed answers.
“If the council is going to retire Columbus, they ought to have a concurrent and concrete plan for what will go in its place,” she wrote in a veto message, saying anything less would be an affront to Italian-Americans.
Anderson said at the meeting Wednesday that the council did not have to answer those questions, at least not right away.
The plan, Anderson said, would be to replace the statue with a monument that honors Italian Americans’ contributions to the city.
The decision to remove the statue was not about cancel culture or erasing history, Anderson said, but rather about correcting a history “that excludes other members of this community.” He said the council members who voted to remove the statue were responding to the will of the people.
Anderson said Thursday that he was “disappointed that two of my Republican colleagues switched their votes and failed to override the mayor’s veto.” All six members of the Democratic caucus voted in favor of the override, along with Republican Aldermen Kristian Rosado and Sharon Beloin-Saavedra, who had both voted initially to remove the statue.
However, Republican Aldermen Howard Dyson and Michael Thompson switched their original votes and sided with those opposed to the veto override.
— New Britain Mayor Erin Stewart
Before the vote, Anderson had exhorted his GOP colleagues to stick with their initial decisions to remove the statue, saying nothing about the proposal had changed since the last vote.
But Thompson disagreed that nothing had changed, citing the deadly invasion of the nation’s Capitol on Jan. 6.
“Division has to stop,” he said. “Dividing this city, dividing its people, it’s got to stop . ... We need to come together before people get hurt.”
During the December vote, Dyson said he thought that the statue would be relocated somewhere else in the city, not hauled away never to be seen again. That would be wrong, he said at the meeting, because Columbus remains a symbol of endurance and accomplishment to Italian Americans.
“We learn from history... we certainly can’t purify it,” Dyson said.