The colors on the flag had barely changed, but this time no one complained.
The city has received no complaints since an employee (pictured) waded through the fountain on the lower Green Friday to hoist the Italian flag in honor of Columbus Day. The flag remained there through this week. The lack of protest contrasted with the outcry last month when the red, white and green Mexican flag was hoisted in the same spot.
Members of the Community Watchdog Project were vociferous in their complaints when the city flew the Mexican flag in mid-September in honor of Mexican Independence Day. Dustin Gold, a leader of the group, sent an email to his supporters calling it “a treasonous act.”
Among many anonymous comments City Hall received was this one: “Get rid of any flag, the Mexican flag and fly it in mexico if you like so much. It’s not our flag and we’re sick of paying for illegal aliens and all their babies and having their kids overrun our schools and downgrade our country.” (Click here to read a back story.)
On Tuesday, mayoral spokeswoman Jessica Mayorga said the city had received no complaints to date about the Italian tri-color sharing a flagpole with the U.S. flag.
Contacted for a response, Gold left a phone message saying his group would be issuing a press release complaining about that very thing.
“Like I said before, and I stand by my statement, if the mayor wants to put up flags of other nations for celebratory purposes, that’s fine, but he needs to put it on a separate flag pole.”
He stopped short of calling flying the Italian flag “a treasonous act.”