ALBANY — “No parking” signs and stacked barricades suggest the removal of the statue of Maj. Gen. Philip Schuyler in front of Albany City Hall could be imminent three years after Mayor Kathy Sheehan’s ordered its ouster.
The signs taped up along Eagle Street and around the triangular space in front of City Hall on Friday evening say parking will be shut down from 4 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday. Two racks of metal barricades just across the street from the monument also suggest upcoming activity.
Schuyler was a significant military and political figure in the Revolutionary era, but also one of the region’s most prodigious enslavers of Black people.
On Friday morning, the Times Union posted a story examining the three years that have passed since Sheehan — just weeks after the killing of George Floyd sparked a national dialogue on racial inequality — issued an order saying the city should begin the process of removing the statue “as soon as possible.” Sunday marks the anniversary of that 2020 order.
Sheehan’s administration has since early May refused to answer questions about the matter, and earlier this week denied a Freedom of Information Law request for the engineering report called for in the mayor’s initial order. The city said its release could “endanger the life and safety of an individual” — though it did not specify who that person was.
Sheehan, who in mid-March said the removal of the statue would occur in “a matter of weeks,” did not return a request for comment Friday evening. Her outside communications adviser, Libby Post, said in a text she was “not authorized to talk about this.”
Sheehan initially said she wanted to hold off on moving the statue until a new home could be found, but in recent months said it would go into storage while a new site is being selected.