It was something of a surprise that Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced the Christopher Columbus statue — removed by the city and sent into storage two years ago after protestors defaced the monument and tried to rip it down themselves — would be returned to its Grant Park pedestal.
Lightfoot said Monday she “fully expects” Columbus’s return, accompanied by a new security plan aimed at preventing the site from becoming a violent flashpoint between police and protestors, as was the case during the city’s civil unrest following the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police in the summer of 2020.
