Philadelphia to move Frank Rizzo statue
The statue of former mayor Frank Rizzo will be removed from its current home outside of City Hall. Plans were announced on Nov. 3 after protests to remove the statue occurred. This is the most recent occurrence of protest over the removal of confederate and racist statues and monuments following the Charlottesville, Virginia. protests in August.
CBS Philly reports, this announcement comes months after a peaceful-turned-violent protest happened in front of the statue. Vandalism of the monument has also occurred.
According to The Philadelphia Inquirer, there has been no official decision on where the statue will be moved to or when the move will happen. In an official statement the Philly Voice reports that, it will take at lease six months for a relocation proposal for the Art Commission to be submitted.
Over 4,000 suggestions have been submitted by Philadelphia residents on potential spots to move the bronze statue. The council is looking at multiple new locations for the statue of Rizzo, but until a final decision has been made there can be no confirmation on a new spot.
Kelly Lee, chief cultural officer of Philadelphia, commented, “We plan to do our due diligence on these locations before announcing the new site, but the input helped shape some of the options we’ll review. Our goal moving forward is to seamlessly relocate the statue to a new, more appropriate public location in the city.”
Frank Rizzo Jr., a former city council member and son of the former mayor, was angry that city officials did not inform his 101-year old mother of the decision before it was made public.
“People who support the monument probably won’t even waste their time going [to an expected art commission hearing] based on the stacked deck,” Rizzo Jr. said in a report from the Inquirer. “This is not a very professional process.”
Frank Rizzo was police commissioner in the 1960s and was elected mayor of Philadelphia in the 1970s. During this time Rizzo was discriminatory towards black citizens in Philadelphia. The bronze statue was donated to the city in 1999.
