Mayor Lori Lightfoot 'fully expects' the Christopher Columbus statue to be returned to Grant Park.
CHICAGO -- Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Monday she"fully expects" the statue of Christopher Columbus to be returned to its pedestal in Grant Park, but not before a security plan is in place to prevent a repeat of the 2020 debacle that left dozens of ambushed police officers injured.
Her overriding goal is"making sure that, if that statue comes back, which I fully expect that it will, that we have a safety plan in place." But Onesti said another Columbus statue - the one removed from its pedestal in Arrigo Park - must also be"part of the conversation." "It was never solely, 'Give me the statue back.' It was, 'Let's sit down, mayor. Let's have a conversation with regards to a vandalism plan, a security plan, a financial plan, a transportation plan. These were things we needed to discuss. That's what forced our hand with the lawsuit in the first place. It was because we couldn't get this type of conversation and still haven't," Onesti said.
"There's a few ideas that I have that I'd love to talk to the mayor about. ... There are several options. It could be part of a traveling situation. It could be part of a museum situation. It's the 130th anniversary of the World's Fair next year ... that these statues were built for. Maybe we do something with regard to that. There's a lot of creative options that I'm ready to unveil or unfurl at the mayor if she would just kind of sit down with us," he said.
At the same time, the mayor argued that the statues - vandalized repeatedly after the death of George Floyd by Minneapolis police - should not be torn down, but used to confront the nation's history.
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