City Flag Improvement Efforts

Thanks to Roman Mars and Ted Kaye, Good Flag, Bad Flag, and 2015 having become basically the Year of the Flag, there are efforts underway in lots of US cities to improve their municipal flag designs. Here are the cases we know about: Albuquerque, NMAustin, TXBillings, MTBirmingham, AL; Bloomington, IN; Boston, MABowling Green, KYColumbia, MODallas, TXEl Paso, TXGrand Rapids, MILos Angeles, CALowell, MAMinneapolis, MNOklahoma City, OKPocatello, IDProvo, UTRaleigh, NCRochester, MN; Salem, OR; San Francisco, CASouth Bend, INSyracuse, NY.  And, just over the border, Victoria, British Columbia.  For Provo and South Bend, efforts have paid off as new flags have been adopted.

The following are the current flags for each city.  Click the city name in the caption to learn more about the redesign effort.


 

Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Albuquerque, New Mexico
Austin, Texas
Austin, Texas
Billings, Montana
Billings, Montana
Mrs. Idyl King Sorsby created this design for the city's 50th anniversary in 1921. Bertha Bendell Norton in the book
Birmingham, Alabama
Bloomington, Indiana (detail of photo by Daniel Robison, Indiana Public Media)
Bloomington, Indiana (detail of photo by Daniel Robison, Indiana Public Media)
Boston, Massachusetts
Boston, Massachusetts
Bowling Green, Kentucky
Bowling Green, Kentucky
Columbia, Missouri
Columbia, Missouri
The current flag of Dallas. Designed by Jane Malone, adopted 1967.
Dallas, Texas
current-el-paso-flag
El Paso, Texas
Grand Rapids, Michigan
Grand Rapids, Michigan
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, California
Lowell, Massachusetts
Lowell, Massachusetts
The city flag of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, designed by former alderman Fred Steffan in 1955 based on submissions to a design contest.
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Minneapolis, Minnesota
us-okokc
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Pocatello, Idaho
Pocatello, Idaho
Portland City Councilor Ed Suslovic presenting the flag of the City of Portland
Portland, Maine
provo-2015
Provo, Utah (new flag adopted January 2015)
Raleigh, North Carolina
Raleigh, North Carolina
Rochester, Minnesota
Rochester, Minnesota
The Salem city flag, designed in 1972 by Arvid Orbeck...
Salem, Oregon
The flag of the city and county of San Francisco, designed by John M. Gamble in 1900, adopted 1940, it refers to the rebuilding of the city after fires in the 1850s.
San Francisco, California
SB_Flag_PNG
South Bend, Indiana (new flag adopted March 2016)
Syracuse, New York
Syracuse, New York
ca-bc-vr-l
Victoria, British Columbia

In addition, there are efforts underway to create flags for the flagless cities of Fargo, North Dakota and Manlius, New York, following the lead of Bath, Maine; Sioux Falls, South Dakota; and Sunnyvale, Texas, all of which recently adopted flags for the first time.

Bath, Maine
Bath, Maine
Sioux Falls, South Dakota
Sioux Falls, South Dakota
Sunnyvale, Texas
Sunnyvale, Texas

7 thoughts on “City Flag Improvement Efforts”

  1. Thank you for sharing. Sunnyvale, TX should be a simple fix. Tweak a bit. See what comes up? Albuquerque: remove name and year. Austin and Billings need re-do’s. Major re-designs are needed for Boston, Lowell, San Francisco and South Bend. Salem, remove name and you have a perfect flag for Oregon’s capital. Best among the group that need no change at all is Bath, Maine.

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