A year later, Pittsburgh Columbus statue remains covered in Schenley Park

A year after the Italian Sons & Daughters of America sued the City of Pittsburgh over its proposed removal of a statue of Christopher Columbus at Schenley Park, the case remains in limbo — and the 13-foot-tall statue remains covered.

An Allegheny County Common Pleas judge who is presiding over the case and has been working toward a settlement requested that Mayor Bill Peduto personally participate in a mediation in September.

The mayor refused, said attorney George Bochetto, who represents the plaintiffs.

“Consequently, the mediation didn’t get very far,” he said. “The city solicitor simply said the mayor will not be participating, which I find irresponsible, and even more important, cowardly.”

Molly Onufer, a city spokeswoman, said she could not comment on pending litigation.

“The Mayor has been very transparent with his position on the statue,” she said.

Pittsburgh officials ordered that the the Columbus statue be wrapped up early on the morning of Oct. 11, 2020, to protect it from being defaced as part of a nationwide movement last year to remove statues that connoted systemic racism.

The Columbus statue was targeted, according to a petition filed with the city in the summer of 2020, for his legacy of mistreating Native Americans.

In the weeks that followed, Peduto and the Pittsburgh Art Commission recommended that the statue, which was unveiled in 1958 and sits at the corner of Frew Street Extension and Schenley Drive, be removed.

However, the Italian Sons & Daughters of America filed a lawsuit alleging that the city’s decision to remove the statue violated the 1955 ordinance passed by City Council that gave the Sons of Columbus of America and its successor organizations “the right to erect and construct a memorial of granite and bronze of Christopher Columbus at such place and location in Schenley Park.”

Further, the complaint contends that there was not a fair, public hearing before a neutral body over the statue’s removal, and that commission members who voted had already made up their minds.

Almost immediately after the lawsuit was filed, Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge John McVay issued an injunction preventing the statue’s removal. However, he did allow it be covered.

Two weeks later, the judge issued an order asking the two sides to reach consensus.

“While acknowledging that historical figures are people and necessarily come with heroic qualities along with character flaws, nonetheless, racism, slavery and prejudice must always be condemned and rejected by our city,” he wrote.

That order prompted the plaintiffs to file a motion asking McVay to remove himself from the case, alleging that he cast Columbus in a bad light and that he appeared to be biased.

The judge has not yet ruled on that motion.

In June, McVay issued an order in which he said he would conduct mediation of the dispute after both sides agreed they had reached an impasse.

Bochetto, who represents the Italian Sons & Daughters of America, said his clients plan to go to trial.

“A member of the executive branch cannot just willy-nilly overrule a legislative enactment,” he said. “I’ve got bad news for the mayor, we’re not going away.”

A similar battle is ongoing in Philadelphia, where a plywood box was erected over a statue of Columbus in Marconi Plaza during the summer of 2020.

According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, that city’s Historical Commission approved the 145-year-old statue’s removal in July 2020 following protests there.

On Friday, a Philadelphia common pleas judge issued an order allowing the removal of the box before that city’s annual Columbus Day parade.

However, late Saturday, the state Commonwealth Court granted the city’s emergency appeal and ordered that the statue remain concealed.