They’re trying to protect the paesan!
A new nonprofit is planning to unveil a Christopher Columbus statue in Brooklyn this October — dodging Mayor Zohran Mamdani and other haters who’d rather cancel the Italian-born explorer.
The Preserving Italian Heritage Coalition, brought together by Chinese-American state Assemblyman Lester Chang (R-Brooklyn), is planning to house the statue at the John Hughes Club in Dyker Heights, private property that keeps it out of the clutches of city officials.
“I’m Chinese, but this is my community, too,” said Chang, who was born on Eldridge Street in Manhattan and today represents Bensonhurst and Dyker Heights. The coalition is now looking to raise $100,000 to cover construction and maintenance costs.
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Chang traces the idea to last November’s election and to President Trump’s Columbus Day proclamation weeks earlier, which vowed to reclaim the explorer from “left-wing arsonists.” He wrote the committee’s first check himself, before there was a bank account to put it in.
The Assemblyman said his father, who immigrated from China in 1924, was turned away from multiple jobs until an Italian restaurant in Liberty, New York put him to work.
It was expected opposition from the Mamdani administration that had the coalition seek private grounds, Chang said.
Mamdani, a democratic socialist, infamously gave the middle finger to a statue of Christopher Columbus in Queens and called for its removal in 2020, while he was serving as a state Assemblyman.
The Assemblyman had initially looked at a park on 18th Avenue as a potential location for the statue but concluded it would take two years of city review with an eventual rejection likely at the end of the lengthy process.
New York Young Republican Club President Stefano Forte, whose club has helped with early fundraising, welcomed the chance to bring a statue in despite other efforts to remove statues of the explorer.
“At a time when Italian American history and culture are being erased by Mayor Mamdani, our club is highlighting one of the giants of American and Italian history, Christopher Columbus,” Forte said.
Mamdani’s office didn’t reply to a request for comment.
Gregory Lendino, the coalition’s treasurer, said Columbus was “an icon” to Italians until very recently.
“It didn’t matter if you were Republican or Democrat, conservative or liberal. He was just an icon that we rallied around.”
For committee member Lori Pedone, the project is incredibly personal.
“My grandparents would be ecstatic knowing that we’re trying to preserve history,” she said.
