When I ask Philadelphians for their opinion, the last thing I expect is for them to agree with me. It\u2019s just not the Philly way.<\/p>\n
So imagine my surprise when I picked a fight with the proliferating Rocky statues around this city, included a poll in my online column<\/a> to ask for readers\u2019 opinions, and found a majority of those who voted agreed with me: The Rocky statue at the top of the Philadelphia Museum of Art steps that was supposed to be removed Dec. 31 (but still remains) has overstayed its welcome.<\/p>\n Fifty-seven readers emailed in response to my piece, which is quite a few (though not as many as responded to my recent hoagie\/sub column<\/a>), <\/b>and a vast majority of those folks agreed with me too.<\/p>\n The original statue from Rocky III given to the city by Sylvester Stallone remains at the bottom of the Art Museum steps, where it\u2019s been since 2006. The exact replica at the top of the steps, just a few hundred feet away, is Stallone\u2019s personal casting of the statue, which he lent to the Art Museum<\/a> to be displayed during the city\u2019s first RockyFest, a monthlong series of events last December put on by the Philadelphia Visitor Center.<\/p>\n Word broke last month that the Philadelphia Department of Aviation also intends to buy the third and only other casting of the statue from its creator, A. Thomas Schomberg, to be displayed inside the Philadelphia International Airport<\/a>. <\/p>\n \u2018Benjamin Franklin or Rocky???\u2019<\/p>\n In my original column, I said that I\u2019m OK with the Rocky statue remaining at the base of the Art Museum steps, where it\u2019s been a popular tourist attraction for 19 years, but that we don\u2019t need any more. <\/p>\n Other art museums don\u2019t cling to decades-old pop culture references. The Art Institute of Chicago hasn\u2019t erected a statue of Ferris Bueller, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art doesn\u2019t have a sculpture of Thomas Crown at its front door.<\/p>\n Of the 1,208 people who took the poll, 559 people (47.5%) voted that \u201cA Rocky statue doesn\u2019t belong at the top of the staircase, but the one at the base of the steps should stay.\u201d<\/p>\n Some readers cited Stallone\u2019s political views as a reason to reassess the statues. Stallone is one of President Donald Trump\u2019s most outspoken celebrity supporters and has called the president \u201cthe second George Washington.\u201d<\/a> <\/p>\n Why, if the Trump administration is making cuts to programs that endanger Philadelphia\u2019s public art<\/a> and is considering removing important exhibits about slavery<\/a> at our city\u2019s National Park Service sites, are leading institutions in our city\u2019s art and tourism communities leaning more into an actor who ardently supports this administration?<\/p>\n I wrote my original column because nobody from the Art Museum, city, or the Philadelphia Visitor Center would tell me why the statue at the top of the steps is still there or when it will be removed.<\/p>\n \u201cRefusing to answer or even acknowledge a reporter\u2019s questions makes me wonder if what the Art Museum and the city are hiding is worse than what I\u2019m imagining,\u201d Jacques Gordon of Devon said via email. <\/p>\n Debbi Kelly Van Cleave of Woodstown, N.J., wrote to me to and said she used to like Stallone. <\/p>\n \u201cNow I hate him. He is supporting a man who hates Philly and everyone in it,\u201d she said. \u201cIf I see his statue, I\u2019m going to take a picture in front of it with my middle finger up.\u201d<\/p>\n Of course, there were some readers who wanted to give me the middle finger, too. <\/p>\n \u201cWith that blank stare and your opinions, I am diagnosing you with TDS [Trump Derangement Syndrome]. Who cares what you think? Are you from Philly? You sound like a Lib from New England. Why don\u2019t you leave the statue alone and keep your Liberal ideology to yourself. The Rocky movie was truly an inspiration,\u201d wrote one reader from South Philly, who shockingly declined to let me use his name in print when I asked. <\/p>\n But Rocky\/Stallone fan Cosmo DeNicola, a Port Richmond native now living in Bryn Mawr, was happy to put his name behind his words. <\/p>\n \u201cRocky is more significant to Philadelphians than anyone dead or alive in Philadelphia\u2019s history. Anyone and everyone …. walk the street … Benjamin Franklin or Rocky??? No comparison,\u201d he said via email. <\/p>\n \u2018In the past tense\u2019<\/p>\n A couple of folks like Ralph Fishkin of Bala Cynwyd said we should separate the man from the myth. <\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not with you on the statue, because it\u2019s about Rocky, not Stallone. That\u2019s why it\u2019s there. Stallone is a bum. Rocky is a Philly aspirational hero. I say this as a Democrat who will NEVER vote for a Republican. But we have to think in complex gray gradations not reflexively black or white, whether we are Democrats or Republicans,\u201d Fishkin said via email. <\/p>\n Other readers were almost poetic with their responses, like Greg Pastore of Bella Vista, who wrote: <\/p>\n One is fine, two is dumb, three is absurd<\/p>\n Stallone gets no say, he doesn\u2019t live here. <\/p>\n But the most powerful response I received was from Lewis Helfand of Narberth, who said Rocky is one of his favorite movies and he\u2019s long been fan of Stallone because of how the film inspired him. Helfand said he\u2019s always believed the statue deserves to be at the top of the Art Museum steps. <\/p>\n