Winged Pigs (Bicentennial Commons)

Four winged pigs sat atop riverboat smokestacks at a riverfront park entrance, and Cincinnati argued about them; WVXU's 2019 headline called the icon one that "wasn't always so beloved". Cincinnati Gateway, by Minneapolis-based artist Andrew Leicester, was the entrance sculpture for Bicentennial Commons at Sawyer Point on the Ohio River. The Ohio Outdoor Sculpture Inventory dates it to 1988, credits the Bicentennial Commission as commissioner, and records it at about 115 feet high, 300 feet wide and 100 feet deep. WCPO reported in 2018 that the park, built on the site of a former scrap yard to mark the city's 200th birthday, put bronze pigs on 30-foot-tall smokestacks as a nod to the pork-packing days that gave Cincinnati the nickname Porkopolis. Cincinnati Refined says the park was dedicated on 4 June 1988, when a Coast Guard helicopter delivered the fourth pig to its smokestack.

The pigs were controversial. WVXU reported that then-mayor Charlie Luken objected. CityBeat quotes Leicester saying some council members felt a pig did not suit their plan to brand Cincinnati as a high-tech city. A public hearing followed, at which supporters wore pig snouts and Councilman David Mann brought in a pig from the Cincinnati Zoo. The sculpture stayed. WCPO notes that flying pigs later represented the city in the Big Pig Gig art exhibition and the Flying Pig Marathon.