A Pennsylvania appeals court has kept alive an Italian heritage group's challenge to efforts by the city of Pittsburgh to remove a statue of Christopher Columbus from a city park. The Commonwealth Court on Friday sent the dispute over the 13-foot bronze and granite Schenley Park statue back to Allegheny County Common Pleas Court for further consideration of issues raised by opponents of the removal.
Common Pleas Judge John McVay Jr., after urging both sides for two years to work out a solution such as relocation, ruled in 2022 that because the statue is in a city-owned park, it represents government speech. But the Commonwealth Court wrote Friday that McVay erred in concluding that the group's claims 'are barred in their entirety,' rejecting what it called the idea that claims of violations of the city's charter, code and ordinance were 'irrelevant procedural quibbles.
After 2020 protests about racial injustice and the statue, Kenney ordered the 1876 statue's removal, calling it a matter of public safety. But a judge reversed that decision, saying the city had failed to provide evidence of a public safety need for removal. In December 2022, a plywood box covering the statue was removed by judicial order.
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