Chinese-American Lester Chang, a state assemblyman, is leading the charge to house a proposed new statue of Christopher Columbus “at the John Hughes Club in Dyker Heights, private property that keeps it out of the clutches of city officials” (New Yorkk Post, August 3, 2026).
“I’m Chinese, but this is my community, too,” said Chang, who was born on Eldridge Street in Manhattan and today represents Bensonhurst and Dyker Heights. The [Preserving Italian Heritage Coalition] is now looking to raise $100,000 to cover construction and maintenance costs.
Chang traces the idea to last November’s election and to President Trump’s Columbus Day proclamation weeks earlier, which vowed to reclaim the explorer from “left-wing arsonists.” He wrote the committee’s first check himself, before there was a bank account to put it in….
It was expected opposition from the Mamdani administration that had the coalition seek private grounds, Chang said.
Mamdani, a democratic socialist, infamously gave the middle finger to a statue of Christopher Columbus in Queens and called for its removal in 2020, while he was serving as a state Assemblyman.
About Chang and his initiative, Instapundit’s Stephen Green comments: “Now that’s what I call assimilation.” But Chang (shown above) was born in the United States, not China; his father was the immigrant. On the other hand, many native-born Americans have yet to assimilate to the American way of life if this way has anything to do with appreciating and defending freedom, private property, self-responsibility, western civilization, and the United States of America.
Among the unassimilated are all those New Yorkers who voted for commie Mamdani. Whether the statue will really be safe on private property depends on just how much careening toward communism and lawlessness the malicious mayor is able to get away with.
