A new coalition announced plans to circumvent Gotham’s bird-flipping mayor with a private way to honor America’s heritage and an Italian hero.
Sandwiched between Bay Ridge and Bensonhurst, Dyker Heights is known for its golf course, extravagant Christmas decorations and proud heritage. This has long included descendants of Italian immigrants who, with the help of their Chinese state assemblyman, plan to erect a statue of Christopher Columbus in Brooklyn.
Through the efforts of New York state Assemblyman Lester Chang (R), Italian-American civic leaders and others organized the Preserving Italian-American Heritage Coalition, a nonprofit seeking to celebrate the nation’s semiquincentennial and the contributions of Italians with a statue of the famed explorer.
“I’m Chinese, but this is my community too,” Chang told the New York Post weeks after plans for the statue had been announced along with a design.
Honored to join the Preservation of Italian-American Heritage Coalition today as we announced a new Columbus Statue at John Hughes Club in Dyker Heights. Proud to have helped found this group & bring this vision to life preserving Italian-American heritage for generations. 🇮🇹 pic.twitter.com/U2nkNhIcM1
— Assemblyman Lester Chang (@AMLesterChangNY) June 17, 2026
Seeking $100,000 to construct and maintain the statue, the coalition intends to install the bronze monument designed by Peter DiMarzio at the John Hughes Club in Dyker Heights, located on the portion of 86th St. named in honor of the founder of the Knights of Columbus, Blessed Father Michael J. McGivney.
Chang, a retired U.S. Navy Reserve and current member of the New York Naval Militia, told the Post it was an Italian restaurant that hired his immigrant father after he came to America in 1924 and was turned away from multiple other jobs.
The coalition’s formation was said to be inspired by President Donald Trump, who issued a proclamation on Columbus Day 2025 honoring the life of the explorer “with reverence and gratitude, and we pledge to reclaim his extraordinary legacy of faith, courage, perseverance, and virtue from the left-wing arsonists who have sought to destroy his name and dishonor his memory.”
Given the ongoing slights against various communities across the five boroughs by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D), including Italians and Catholics, many who were unfamiliar with the Islamunist before his 2025 election were now keenly aware of his anti-Ameircan antics.
This included a post made months prior to his own election as a state assemblyman when, in June 2020 as leftists across the nation embarked on a crusade against history by tearing down statues, the Uganda-born politician shared his true feelings for Columbus by flipping off a statue located in Columbus Square Park in Astoria. Over six years and two jobs later, the offending post still remains on Mamdani’s social media with the caption, “Take it down.”
Take it down. pic.twitter.com/7Bmis8hnnh
— Zohran Kwame Mamdani (@ZohranKMamdani) June 18, 2020
Integral in fundraising for the project, New York Young Republican Club President Stefano Forte told the Post, “At a time when Italian American history and culture are being erased by Mayor Mamdani, our club is highlighting one of the giants of American and Italian history, Christopher Columbus.”
Likewise, committee member Lori Pedone expressed, “My grandparents would be ecstatic knowing that we’re trying to preserve history.”
In addition to the Columbus statue, the coalition hopes to welcome removed monuments from around the country, using private property to avoid the red tape and screeching brakes of bureaucracy after skipping plans to pitch putting the statue at a nearby park.
Understanding anti-American sentiments will likely lead to vandalism, especially given the dense population of Hamas sympathizers occupying neighboring Bay Ridge, plans include room to install an enclosure should the need arise to protect that statue from damage.
Native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and truth seeker, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and their dog and, when he isn't researching current events and their impacts, you'll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel.
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