If Mayor Lori Lightfoot were to follow the recent recommendations of the Chicago Monuments Project Advisory Committee and excise Christopher Columbus permanently from Grant Park, logic dictates that she should then immediately rename Columbus Drive. After all, a prominent city street is etched in the public consciousness far more than a statue. People traverse a drive, work on it, walk down it, watch it pop up on their phone. That’s a much bigger deal.
Lightfoot could then declare that the city apologize for its participation in the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893 and vow never to mention it again. She might proclaim that no city dollars shall henceforth be spent in Columbus, Ohio, until those good citizens see their way toward renaming their city. Same for Columbus, Indiana, its architectural riches notwithstanding.
How could she justify merely mothballing some statue when all of those situations exist? It makes no sense whatsoever.
