The recommendation by a city of Providence committee: the Christopher Columbus statue must go. For good. The statue had stood next to Elmwood Avenue in South Providence until last Summer. That's when the mayor had it temporarily removed and put in storage after it became a lightning rod for the social unrest sweeping the country.

The at-first temporary removal of the Christopher Columbus statue that stood adjacent to Elmwood Avenue in June of last year was, for some, the culmination of 25 years of discussion, and at times the subject of vandalism and defacement, on the role of the man credited in mainstream history books with "finding America".