While it may take forever to get that building permit you want from City Hall, when it comes to removing Confederate statues, San Antonio city government can move at lightning speed, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
Just hours after City Council voted 10-1 to remove the 40 foot tall Confederate monument which has stood in Travis Park since 1899, cranes and crews were on hand beginning the process of dismantling the statue for removal.
Unlike in other cities, there was no demonstrations protesting the removal, just a handful of people watching the operation take place.
The monument will be taken to an undisclosed location for storage, which is included in the $150,000 contract City Council agreed to as part of the removal vote. After a decision is made where the monument will be located, the company will then re-erect at the new spot.
Possible locations which have been mentioned include the Confederate Cemetery on the city's east side, and at a museum, like the Witte, as a possible centerpiece of an exhibition on San Antonio's role in the Civil War.
It has also not been determined what, if anything, will occupy the location at the north end of Travis Park, where the monument was erected by the United Daughters of the Confederacy in 1899, and where it has stood, largely unnoticed, for 118 years.
In addition to the City Council vote, a federal magistrate cleared the way for the monument's removal by dismissing a lawsuit filed by the Sons of Confederate Veterans which sought to block the removal of the statue. The magistrate ruled that removing the monument does not violate the group's First Amendment rights to free speech and free expression.