By: Chuck Miller
history

So Philip Schuyler’s statue is leaving … what’s replacing it?

There’s been plenty of discussion regarding what’s going to happen with the statue of Philip Schuyler in downtown Albany.  His history as part of the founding of the city is counterbalanced by his reputation as being one of the largest slaveowners in the area.  So a few days ago, Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan announced that the statue would find a new home somewhere – just not in the middle of downtown.  Whether it would relocate to a museum, or maybe to the town of Schuylerville, or some other location, is still unknown.

My feelings on the statue are this.  You want to take him down, that’s your choice.  You want to leave him there, that’s your choice.  But if you do take him down … perhaps it might be a good idea to figure out whether another statue belongs there instead?

And if so, what Albany icon deserves that spot?

Now the rules here are simple.  You can’t put a statue of someone who ALREADY has a bust somewhere else in the city.  So Erastus Corning, Henry Johnson, Thomas Whalen, they’re excepted from the list.

That being said, I have a few ideas for a person who deserves a statue in that very location.  And they include…

WILLIAM KENNEDY

That’s right.  The Pulitzer Prize winning author, the man who created “Ironweed” and “Quinn’s Book” and the rest of the Albany Cycle deserves that spot.  Come on, you know you’ve read the history of our little city through the eyes of William Kennedy and it makes perfect sense?  Right?

DAN O’CONNELL

You wouldn’t have Albany politics without the political machine that Dan O’Connell created.  The $5 vote.  Patronage jobs.  Taverns that only served Hedrick’s or Dobler unless they wanted to be raided.  This would work, wouldn’t it?

THE BLOTTO LOGO

That’s right.  You know the picture.  The woman with a drum replacing her face.  The one on the cover of the album “Hello, My Name is Blotto! What’s Yours?”  This would indeed speak to the whimsy and irreverence of our fair city.  We’ve already got a statue of the RCA Victor mascot in Albany, so why the hell not have a statue of Albany’s greatest rock band?

JIM COYNE

I’m just going to leave this one here.  😀

JERRY JENNINGS

If they do build a statue in his honor, can they make it out of materials that would give the statue a permanent tan?

There you go, discuss it in the blog comments below.

Have fun with this.