PHILADELPHIA — A judge has approved an emergency order to remove the plywood box covering the Christopher Columbus statue on Marconi Plaza in South Philly.
The order by Common Pleas Judge Paula Patrick was signed Saturday and is effective immediately. It was announced at a news conference Saturday afternoon at Marconi Plaza by an attorney for supporters of the statue who gathered at the statue’s base.
“I have a crew on standby,” the attorney, George Bochetto, said, adding they could remove the box, “if not tonight, first thing tomorrow morning.”
Bochetto had said Friday: “We’re going to make sure that, by the time the Columbus Day parade concludes at Marconi Plaza on Sunday, that that box is down. If the city doesn’t take it down, we’ll take it down for them.”
Patrick had previously ordered the city to remove the box, which the city has appealed.
Representatives of the city did not have an immediate comment on Saturday’s ruling.
Friday’s court action thrust the statue back into the news at the start of what for decades had been Columbus Day weekend. It became a flash point and was covered with plywood during racial justice protests last summer following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Then the Historical Commission voted to remove it, and the legal fight began.
City workers last year covered the statue with a box, which the Kenney administration said was meant to protect it while they determined its fate.
