Removing Confederate monuments in Richmond, Va. could cost the city’s taxpayers $3 million a year, according to a society dedicated to preserving them.
The Monument Avenue Preservation Society alleges that removal of the monuments will bring property values in Richmond down by 10 to 20 percent, which could cost taxpayers at least $3 million each year, The Washington Post reported.
“That group that hit Charlottesville did us no favors,” Bill Gallasch, president of the society, told WaPo. “They polarized things more than ever. It’s a polarized world — you don’t like what I like, I don’t like you. It’s sad. Very sad. I feel for my grandchildren.”
Richmond’s mayor, Levar Stoney, who had once banned a commission from deliberating on the removal of the Confederate monuments, is now considering removing them due to what he deemed “their power to serve as a rallying point for division and intolerance and violence.” Virginia Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe also switched his position on the monuments after the August rally, now calling for their removal.
“We don’t need any more crazies coming to town,” Gallasch told WaPo. “I mean, if you think Charlottesville was bad, I can’t imagine what they’d do if you start doing that.”
Sixty-two percent of respondents to a poll conducted after the Charlottesville rally favored keeping the statues up, while 27 percent believed they should be removed.
The Daily Caller News Foundation reached out to Gallasch and the Richmond mayor’s office for comment, but received none in time for press.
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