Vera Mukhina, THE sculptor behind the worker and kolkhoz woman sculpture, would’ve probably convinced people to keep it purely for artistic value. She allegedly did it with the “Freedom monument” in Latvia, but the Latvian “Freedom” statue is so ugly I wouldn’t have listened.
You could turn the supposed values the statue is representing against the State that’s refusing to uphold them. That’s what I would do personally.
It’s a rather morbid sight to have a statue of liberty, in a city where even a single person goes unsheltered and hungry.