This post was originally published in April of 2016. We’re posting it again as part of Philebrity’s 17th anniversary in October of 2021. As it turned out, the Frank Rizzo statue was removed in June of 2020.
The question of why our city a statue celebrating one of the most controversial figures in its history has long been a Philadelphia Thing That Makes You Go Hmm, yet giant Frank Rizzo remains, eternally waving into the void of the Municipal Services Building. (See also: Yesterday's post on the resurrection of the documentary Amateur Night At City Hall: The Frank L. Rizzo Story). Like many, artist/activist Joe Boruchow doesn't like the bronze-covered bad juju of the statue, and he'd like to see it gone, or at the very least moved to a "less prominent" area of the city. On his website he writes: "Frank Rizzo’s legacy of racial divisiveness and thuggery is no longer one that Philly should endorse. Like an effigy of an authoritarian dictator, the statue looms over our provincial politics and is a symbol of our dysfunction." Crumb bums of the world, unite and take over.
