This week began with the city’s abrupt decision to remove the Christopher Columbus statue from Seaside Park and ended with an uncertain outlook for the future of the likeness of the controversial explorer. “It needs to come back out. It doesn’t belong to the city. It belongs to all residents of Bridgeport,” City Council President Aidee Nieves acknowledged Friday.

Nieves was consulted about and supported the mayor’s decision Monday to place the statue in an undisclosed storage site to, they said, protect it from possible vandalism. Nationally, activists have been targeting monuments to the explorer and other historically divisive figures. Some controversial statues have been ordered down by municipal officials, others torn down. There had been a local protest against the statue before it was removed.