Pittsburgh Mayor Peduto recommends removal of Columbus statue from Schenley Park

Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto on Friday recommended the removal of the Christopher Columbus statue in Schenley Park.

The announcement comes two weeks after the City Art Commission unanimously voted to remove the statue, which has been a source of debate for months.

In a statement, Peduto said he directed the statue be displayed in a private location that has yet to be determined. He asked the Art Commission to hold a formal hearing to vote on the removal and decommissioning of the statue.

“After much thought and prayer I believe it is now time for us to return the Columbus statue to the Italian-American community that brought it into existence,” he said. “They can preserve it in a manner than celebrates Italian-American culture, while acknowledging the wreckage that slavery and racism has done to America.”

Patricia Mocello, vice president of the Western Pennsylvania District of the Italian Sons and Daughters of America, said she was disappointed to hear of the statue’s fate.

She said she’s concerned that this weekend – what would normally be the city’s Columbus Day parade – could see the statue defaced or damaged.

“That statue is a remembrance for the Italian community as to how we helped build the city of Pittsburgh,” said Mocello, who lives in Brookline. “My father worked in the steel mills. My uncle was a shoemaker. We all lived in the city and were a part of Pittsburgh. We worked hard to put that statue up. My concern now is where will it be taken?”

In a letter to the Art Commission, Peduto detailed the history of the statue and the push by Italian-Americans in Pittsburgh in the early 1900s to build the statue. That push, he said, took 50 years of “raising nickels and dimes, passing plates after Mass and community picnics.”

He pointed to his own Italian heritage and said Italian immigrants like his grandfather saw Columbus “as a hero who symbolized that he and other Italian-Americans had a right to be here.”

He said that heritage does stop him from understanding those with different perspectives, and he said he views the century-old push to adopt Columbus Day as a holiday and push for the statue’s removal as parallel causes.

“Italian-Americans viewed him with pride as they were being vilified and murdered,” Peduto wrote. “Today, those experiencing oppression in our country see him as a symbol of what divides us and a progenitor of slavery and racism.”

No decision has been made as to when the statue will be removed or where it will be stored, and the mayor said city crews might cover the statue until its removal.

Pittsburgh City Councilman Corey O’Connor represents the part of the city that is home to the statue. He said the mayor’s office received a number of calls from both sides about the statue.

“We are aware of the final decision to remove it,” he said. “We haven’t heard if it is going to the museum or to another neighborhood. We just have to wait and see what the commission decides in the next week or so.”

The Art Commission used a survey to gauge public sentiment, offering four options: removal, replacement, alteration or no action. Of the comments received prior to the mid-September public forum, about 1,700 of 4,400 had voted for the statue’s removal.

A separate online petition pushing for removal garnered 14,000 signatures.