Statues and busts celebrating historical figures always seem to invite controversy. So San Luis Obispo has come up with a solution: don’t allow monuments of real people at all.
The City Council adopted the policy after reviewing a study of various monument policies conducted in cities over a five-month period. The city examined policies in Santa Cruz, Auburn, San Jose, and Washington, D.C. among others before making its decision.
“Anyone worthy of a monument would not want one,” Mayor Heidi Harmon said (KCBX).
That doesn’t mean a monument can never have a face.
“Let’s look at the Statue of Liberty,” said Harmon. “It’s a human form, but I don’t know who that woman is. It’s celebrating the values that we have in this country, and even at times that can be controversial, but at least we are talking about ideas and not about individuals.”
James Papp, chair of the San Luis Obispo Cultural Heritage Committee, thinks that’s ludicrous. He called the city’s policy “the worst thing they could have come up with” and warned that it could lead to bans on plaques and events that honor people too.
Does San Luis Obispo’s stance represent a reasonable compromise in the monument debate or has the city gone too far?