Winged Pigs Prove Too Swift for Squeals of Protest in ‘Porkopolis’

City Council members wearing plastic snouts and pig hats peered over a ham Tuesday and heard squeals and grunts as residents debated whether bronze porkers with wings should symbolize Cincinnati’s bicentennial.

“I think we’ve got enough old statues with old, bearded men in this town,” Councilman Arn Bortz argued through his plastic snout. “We should leave this (design) alone and have fun with this when it’s erected.”

The winged pigs are to be placed atop columns at the entrance to a large bicentennial sculpture display in a park beside the Ohio River. The artist chose flying pigs as a lighthearted way to commemorate Cincinnati’s history as a hog-slaughtering center in the 1800s, when the city was dubbed “Porkopolis.”

Some residents were not amused when the work was publicized. They flooded newspapers and the City Council with letters and calls of protest, prompting the hearing.

Council members learned Tuesday, however, that they are powerless to change the design--it had already been approved by city boards and the work was under way. So they sat back, in their snouts and green baseball caps adorned with pink plastic pigs, and listened to the arguments on both sides of the brouhaha.

The bicentennial sculpture, being done by Minneapolis artist Andrew Leicester, will cover a 100-by-50-foot area of Sawyer Point Park. It will have 17 elements depicting various stages of the city’s history.