I haven’t gotten over to see it yet, but a new statue of Fred Rogers was unveiled on the North Side this month! It is bronze and was sculpted by Robert Berks, who also did the statue of Mayor Caliguri that I’ve been meaning to get to. The one of Mr. Rogers is in a similar style, which has a little abstractness to it. Some peope don’t particularly care for it and would have preferred something more realistic, notably Jimmy Kimmel who said on his show that it makes Mr. Rogers look like a mud monster.
Also in the news this morning was a column from a former Post-Gazette writer demanding her Gene Kelly statue. From what I can tell on the internets, the reasons the statue has not been made a reality since its announcement in 2001 include location issues, approval from Kelly’s widow, and funds. We’ll have to see if Barbara Cloud’s column can get the ball moving again, but mentions in her column in 2002, 2005, 2006 and 2007 didn’t seem to do the trick.
