Portland City Council considers policy for managing city monuments

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — The Portland City Council considered an amendment to city code Wednesday, which would define what a public monument is and create a system for the city to receive and address public complaints about its monuments.

Commissioner Dan Ryan, who is in charge of developing a report that will soon make recommendations to the city council for reinstalling the presidential statues toppled during the 2020 protests, said that the amendment is a step toward a more inclusive and thoughtful stewardship of the city’s cultural and historical symbols.

“I’m excited that we’ll have a code package for public monuments,” Ryan said. “It was something that was not there during the unrest of 2020, when we could have used it.”

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The amendment was outlined for the city council by Darion Jones, the city’s director of policies for arts, culture and equity. During his presentation, Jones explained that, if the amendment passes, the city will create a city arts program or advisory board, which would then review complaints regarding city monuments by conducting research and gathering the opinions of Portland citizens. A formal recommendation would then be brought to the city council for any changes to the city’s monuments.

City commissioners Mingus Mapps, Rene Gonzalez and Mayor Ted Wheeler expressed concerns about appointing a monuments committee and how its members would manage the difficult task of curating potentially polarizing works of art on behalf of an entire city.

“This is a tough area. There’s no two ways about it,” Gonzalez said. “There’s a lot of opinions. It’s art.”

The City of Portland and Multnomah County currently share a collection of 170 outdoor sculptures. Among these sculptures are the Abraham Lincoln, George Washington and Theodore Roosevelt statues toppled during the civil unrest of 2020.

At the end of March, the city council will review a proposal for returning the presidential statues to public spaces. The city filed insurance claims for the statues in 2024 and is currently waiting to receive insurance money to complete restoration work before the statues can be reinstalled.

“Once we receive the funds the repairs on the monuments will begin,” Jones said. “We anticipate that once we receive the funds it will take at least 9 months for the repairs to be complete and for those monuments to go back up.”

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Because Wednesday’s discussion was the first reading of a non-emergency ordinance, the proposed amendment was moved to a second reading, which will take place at an upcoming city council meeting. Showing his support, Ryan said that the proposed amendment would give Portlanders a formal and constructive means to express their concerns and take part in any decisions made regarding Portland’s monuments.

“The spirited dialogue on monuments is exactly what we’re supposed to have as a community,” Ryan said. “Move beyond the denial and the whitewashing and also from the retaliation and revenge. There’s this wonderful world in between those two.”

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