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Crisis Averted: William Penn Statue to Remain at Welcome Park
Published:
Well that was quick. The William Penn statue at Welcome Park will not be removed:
The review of the new design proposal for Welcome Park has been withdrawn. No changes to the William Penn statue are planned. For more info, please visit: https://t.co/XWk0zPbEvl. pic.twitter.com/Ly0aooxXcx
— IndependenceNPS 🇺🇸 (@INDEPENDENCENHP) January 8, 2024
The press release notes that the preliminary draft proposal was “released prematurely and had not been subject to a complete internal agency review.”
They are still interested in “rehabilitating” the park, which stinks. It’s four trees and a statue with a half-wall near 2nd and Walnut. Pagan is gonna go down there later this week and review the park. It should take him three minutes total, because there’s not much to analyze.
What’s interesting is this from Governor Shapiro:
My team has been in contact with the Biden Administration throughout the day to correct this decision. I’m pleased Welcome Park will remain the rightful home of this William Penn statue — right here in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Penn founded. https://t.co/awSTpcyrNp
— Governor Josh Shapiro (@GovernorShapiro) January 8, 2024
The conservative allegation is that the Gov only came in after the fact to claim a partial W here. They’ll tell you that public backlash stopped this, and not the Governor’s office, which may or may not be true. We’ll never know!
But we’ll give the Gov the benefit of the doubt since he’s a Montco guy and Sixers fan who came on our podcast last summer. He’s a friend of the program:
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com