Columbus statue in Schenley Park awaits fate as public meeting is set
Pittsburgh’s Art Commission will hold a special hearing this month on the controversial Christopher Columbus statue in Schenley Park before deciding its fate in the coming weeks.
Members of the public will be able to join a virtual hearing at 5: 30 p. m. Sept. 17, during which they can provide comment, as well as view a presentation on the history and context of the statue, according to a Thursday announcement by the commission.
The statue of the 15th- century Italian explorer and colonizer has been a point of contention for years and was vandalized in 2010, 2017, and this June and July.
An online petition calling for the removal of the statue, located on Schenley Drive in Central Oakland, has garnered 14,116 signatures as of Thursday. The petitioners decry the celebration of a man with ties to the spreading of disease, enslavement and killings of Indigenous people in the Caribbean and Americas.
Columbus is still honored in Pittsburgh’s Bloomfield neighborhood with an annual parade sponsored by the Italian Sons and Daughters of America.
That organization, representing 725,000 people across the U. S. according to its figures, has already submitted a letter to the Art Commission in support of the statue and recounting anti- Italian sentiment and violence through the 19th and early 20th centuries.
“Throughout that entire time, the only symbol that Italian immigrants and their children were able to cling to, as a source of pride and accomplishment, was Christopher Columbus,” the Aug. 20 letter reads.
The Columbus statue is not the first to be criticized in Pittsburgh. In 2019, the city moved from its Oakland location a statue of the composer Stephen Foster that depicted an African American banjo player at the feet of the seated composer — an image that long angered some as celebrating white appropriation of Black culture.
The Art Commission is providing three ways for the public to submit comment ahead of or during the upcoming hearing, according to the mayor’s office announcement. Each person is limited to one statement and “preference of outcome” — meaning whether they wish to see the statue remain, removed, replaced or altered.
Those who wish to vocalize comment during the virtual hearing on the video conferencing platform Zoom will be asked to use the “raise hand” function and will be limited to three minutes.
“If you have already given a public statement, please prioritize giving time to those who have not yet spoken. If you do not plan to provide testimony, please tune into the YouTube livestream … to allow those who want to speak the opportunity to do so,” the city’s announcement read.
The city is also providing an online comment form at engage. pittsburghpa. gov/ christopher- columbus.
Those wishing to send written correspondence to be incorporated into the public hearing can send an email to pacd@ pittsburghpa. gov by noon on Sept. 16 or send comment by mail by Sept. 15 to Attn: Art Commission Special Hearing, 200 Ross St., 4th Floor, Pittsburgh, PA 15219.
The city’s YouTube channel, where the hearing will be livestreamed, can be accessed at www. you- tube. com/ channel/ UC- YfIv9wvBjGT3LMxo9hLoQ.
The Art Commission is expected to issue a decision at its regularly scheduled meeting at 2 p. m. Sept. 23.