A big-hearted Bostonian has stepped up to help a man who will be hit by fines today for hanging an American flag in violation of the rules at his fancy Fort Point building, even as a condo trustee is calling him a phony patriot.
“He’s trying to rile people up with his fake patriotism,” trustee Sean McGrail said about Mark DiGiovanni, 52, who is using an American flag as a curtain in violation of the Congress Street building’s “white curtains only” rule. “When he bought it, the condo documents were very clear. In my opinion, he doesn’t want to hear ‘no.’ ”
DiGiovanni yesterday said the 6-by-10-foot flag that has covered one of his windows since winter is more than a provocative window treatment.
“In such troubling times, it’s good for people to think about what it means, what we want it to be,” said DiGiovanni, a facilities manager and set designer whose five uncles fought in World War II.
In April, other residents of the 92-unit luxe loft building — where a 4,123-square-foot penthouse sold for $3.1 million — complained about DiGiovanni’s curtain.
When the building management asked him to take it down, DiGiovanni asked the condo’s trustees to exempt him from the white curtains rule.
McGrail and other trustees at the architecturally feted eight-story Congress Street property said no.
“It’s part of the design features,” said McGrail, 40, a sales executive. “All outward-facing curtains are either white or backed with white. We don’t want it looking like a college dorm.”
McGrail said he and other trustees sent DiGiovanni “multiple warning letters,” but with the flag still hanging, fines will be levied today.
As of late yesterday, neither DiGiovanni nor McGrail knew exactly what those fines would be.
Still, Vincent J. Bono, owner of the digital picture-book maker Panraven, volunteered to pay DiGiovanni’s fines “as long as it’s within reason.”
“He’s a regular guy trying to express his support of the country at a time when nobody likes America, and they’re trying to shut him down,” Bono said.