The Lenin statue would have gone up when the Fremont area was heavily blue collar working neighborhood. That was back when the Communist Party was totally embracing the blue collar worker. There were a lot of cheap flophouse hotels where transient workers could stay.
The Fremont area has been heavily gentrified since then. Although it is a bastion of lefties and gays, they likely do not want an overt sign of their ultra leftism.
Yep, that was ‘95 and I was living in Seattle at the time. It’s actually sort of an interesting take on Vlad The Bad, not intended to be entirely complimentary and focusing on the fellow’s violence. And yeah, housing in Fremont has gone up just a tad since then and the residents reflect that.