Attorneys for the City of Pittsburgh said that a lawsuit filed against it last year to save the Christopher Columbus statue at Schenley Park ought to be dismissed because the organization that filed it doesn’t have standing. In documents filed last week in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court, the city said the group suing it, the Italian Sons and Daughters of America, are not the original donors of the statue.
And while acknowledging that the group says it is based on Downtown’s Wood Street, the city portrayed the organization as outsiders, noting it is led by President Basil Russo of Cleveland. “The residents of this city have asked their government to remove the Columbus statue from Schenley Park,” wrote assistant city solicitor Emily McNally.
