After creating an 18-member commission to take three months to review which monuments on city property should be removed, Mayor Bill de Blasio is now saying not a single statue may be yanked after all.
The mayor’s mid-August call for a review of all “symbols of hate” sparked a firestorm of criticism from groups concerned that revered historical figures with imperfect characters could be targeted — such as Christopher Columbus.
Although the mayor launched the effort by suggesting that a downtown marker naming a Nazi symphathizer “will be one of the first we remove,” he has since walked back that statement.
“This commission may take down no statues, and of course they’re going to propose something to me, and then I have to go through a whole process,” he said on Fox 5 early Thursday — the same day someone splashed red paint on the statue of Theodore Roosevelt on the steps of the American Museum of National History.
De Blasio tried to jump into the national conversation on the removal of Confederate statues by announcing the commission just days after white nationalists sparked violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, over the removal of a statue there.
But the move has caused him a fair share of headaches locally, and forced him to repeatedly dodge questions about which monuments he’d like to see removed.
“I’m not going to pre-judge,” he told Fox 5 when asked again about the fate of monuments to Columbus. “Because it’s not just about Columbus, or about folks who own slaves or Confederate officers — it’s about everything.”
While Hizzoner was the one who created the kerfuffle here by unilaterally launching the 90-day review, he now admits it’s not a vital issue.
“I value why people care, but the monuments, the statues are really not the issues that matter to everyday New Yorkers,” he said.