A Brooklyn heritage group plans to unveil a new Christopher Columbus statue this fall, putting the monument debate back in New York City’s political crosshairs just months into Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s first year in office.
The Preserving Italian Heritage Coalition is targeting October for the unveiling and hopes to raise $100,000 for construction and maintenance, according to the New York Post. Rather than pursue a city park location, the group plans to place the statue on private property at the John Hughes Club in Dyker Heights.
The club’s official website lists the venue at 1305 86th Street in Brooklyn, near the intersection of 86th Street and 13th Avenue. That private setting is central to the coalition’s strategy, with members telling the Post that private property could avoid the city review and red tape that would come with a public monument.
A Monument Planned Outside City Hall’s Reach
The project was brought together by state Assemblymember Lester Chang, who represents Bensonhurst and Dyker Heights, and received early fundraising help from the New York Young Republican Club. Coalition treasurer Gregory Lendino said the statue will move forward despite the possibility of opposition or vandalism, according to the New York Post’s report.
The group’s argument is about more than one bronze figure. The Columbus Heritage Coalition says Columbus monuments have become symbols of Italian American identity, pointing to the history of immigrants who used public statues to assert cultural pride after facing discrimination and violence.
That history is colliding with Mamdani’s past criticism of Columbus. A 2020 post resurfaced during his mayoral campaign showing Mamdani giving the middle finger to a Columbus statue while calling for its removal, a gesture that became a flashpoint with Italian American groups.
The White House also pushed Columbus back into the national culture-war conversation in 2025, when President Donald Trump’s official proclamation called for reclaiming the explorer’s legacy from what it described as “left-wing arsonists.” The proclamation declared October 13, 2025, as Columbus Day and framed the holiday as part of a broader defense of Italian American heritage.
The Statue Fight Is Bigger Than One Statue
Coalition members are also discussing whether the new monument could serve as a landing spot for statues removed from other parts of the country. That would give the Dyker Heights project a broader mission: not simply adding another Columbus statue, but creating a private refuge for monuments caught in America’s increasingly familiar battle over public memory.
The Mamdani administration did not respond to the Post’s request for comment. For now, the coalition’s plan keeps the next Columbus statue outside the city’s public-art approval process—but very much inside New York’s ongoing argument over who gets remembered, where, and on whose terms.
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