A statue of Christopher Columbus seen at Columbus Circle near Central Park on June 12 in New York. Angela Weiss / AFP / Getty Images
The city of New York may not reconsider the committee’s decision to guard the statue of Christopher Columbus near Central Park, Mayor Bill de Blasio told a press conference Friday.
“The commission does a very careful and broad job. Dedicated and dedicated people who care to understand all history and care about social justice and come up with a vision for how to overcome this. We must, I think, stick to on what the commission has achieved, “de Blasio said.
Asked if he was worried about residents handling themselves, de Blasio said, “the important point is that we as cities need to move forward in many ways,” and detailed the priorities of the city: keeping people safe, getting people to support their livelihoods, and addressing police reform.
What is this about: In January 2018, the Mayor’s Advisory Commission for City Arts, Monuments and Markers recommended the city to keep the monument in existence and take additional steps to promote public dialogue about polarizing figures.
“The Commission believes that when a monument reviewed incites a polarization debate, the City must facilitate more public dialogue through a number of actions and then re-evaluate the situation after a certain period of time,” the commission said in their report to the city.
Additional actions include assigning new monuments “to groups of people who have been left behind,” temporary works of art in response to the heritage and history represented by Christopher Columbus and the annual recognition of Indigenous Peoples’ Day.
When Confederate statues descended throughout the country, some of them Columbus was also demoted. Columbus has long been a controversial figure in history for his treatment of the indigenous people he met and for his role in cruel colonization at their expense.
