City announces plan to relocate Frank Rizzo statue

PHILADELPHIA, Pa. (WTXF) - The city of Philadelphia has announced they will relocate the statue of former Philadelphia Mayor Frank Rizzo.

Friday, the city announced they would be moving the statue, displayed on Thomas Paine Plaza in front of the Municipal Services Building, to a location that has not yet been determined.

The city originally took ideas from the public on what to do with the statue, leading to the decision to relocate it.

"Earlier this year we initiated a call for ideas on the future of the Rizzo statue. We carefully reviewed and considered everyone's viewpoints and we have come to the decision that the Rizzo statue will be moved to a different location," said Michael DiBerardinis, Managing Director for the City.

The city added that the decision came at a time when they have begun planning to re-envision Paine Plaza as a new, inviting public space similar to Dilworth Plaza, and the soon to be unveiled Love Park.

We plan to do our due diligence on these locations before announcing the new site, but the input helped shaped some of the options we'll review," said Kelly Lee, Chief Cultural Officer, "Our goal moving forward is to seamlessly relocate the statue to a new, more appropriate public location in the city."

The next step for the city will be to conduct feasibility studies for the potential new locations.

The Rizzo statue became a topic of conversation in recent months as the removal of statues of other controversial figures in other parts of the country made news.

Rizzo, the tough talking former cop from South Philadelphia, had long been criticized for his volatile relationships with African Americans and LGBTQ communities in the 70s and 80s.