Controversial NYC Statues Should Be Left Alone, Commission Told

KEW GARDENS, QUEENS — The future of controversial city statues went under public scrutiny Friday – with the majority of speakers saying they should be left alone.

Several of those 14 people argued the statues — including the monument to Christopher Columbus at Columbus Circle — shouldn't be judged according to 21st-century values. Some suggested accompanying them with plaques or online information to teach New Yorkers about the city's colored past.

"We need to remind ourselves of who we were, even when we were wrong," said Jeffrey Kroessler, a historian and a librarian at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

About 75 people attended Friday's hearing, the first of five planned by the Mayor Bill de Blasio's Commission on City Art, Monuments and Markers. The mayor appointed the 18-member group in September amid a national debate about what to do with statues honoring racist Confederate leaders.

Some speakers equated the push to remove New York's controversial statues with authoritarian efforts to erase unpalatable history, such as the Cultural Revolution in China, the Islamic State's destruction of ancient Middle Eastern landmarks and the story told in George Orwell's novel "1984."

But nine speakers, including Native American activists, argued that they give murderers and torturers like Columbus a level of honor they don't deserve. That contradicts New York City's values of inclusion and social justice, they said.

"What they do is they glorify a figure who was against all things that the Statue of Liberty represents," Rick Chavolla, chairman of the American Indian Community House in lower Manhattan, said of the city's monuments to Columbus.

Opponents of the statues agreed that it's important to teach the history of these figures, but said that doesn't require honoring them with public monuments.

Before the end of the year, the monuments commission will develop "non-binding guidelines" for how the city should treat landmarks viewed as symbols of oppression, said city Cultural Affairs Commissioner Tom Finkelpearl, who co-chairs the panel.

It's evaluating all 875 permanent monuments on city parkland, he said. In addition to Columbus, the Central Park monument to J. Marion Sims, an early gynecologist who experimented on enslaved black women, has proven particularly controversial.

The de Blasio administration will decide which of those recommendations to adopt, Finkelpearl said. But the city Public Design Commission would ultimately decide whether to remove or alter any statues on city property, he said. Local community boards would also have a say.

"The idea is to come up with a process so that when there's a controversy in the future, there's a logical way to get from that to making an agency recommendation that then goes to the community board and the Public Design Commission," Finkelpearl told reporters after the hearing.

You can weigh in on the issue at the four remaining hearings. There's one in each borough and each starts at 10 a.m. Speakers must be registered in advance.

• Tuesday, Nov. 21 at 10 a.m. — Brooklyn Borough Hall, Community Room, 209 Joralemon St., Brooklyn
• Wednesday, Nov. 22 at 10 a.m. — Manhattan DCAS Health Building, second floor atrium, 125 Worth St., Manhattan
• Monday, Nov. 27 at 10 a.m. — Bronx Borough Hall, Rotunda, 851 Grand Concourse, the Bronx
• Tuesday, Nov. 28 at 10 a.m. — Staten Island Borough Hall, Room 125, 10 Richmond Terrace, Staten Island

The commission is also gathering feedback through an online survey.

(Lead image: Shawnee Rice, center, an indigenous activist, speaks at Friday's hearing on what to do with controversial New York City landmarks. Photo by Noah Manskar)