Loooks like Obama is a racists. Six poilted starrs over Chicago
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Chicago’s Flag Is a Much Bigger Deal Than Any Other City’s Flag Chicago’s flag flies from front porches all over town. It’s seen on T-shirts—and in tattoos. Does the flag matter so much (or look so good) in any other American city?
By Robert Loerzel
Published Aug. 22, 2013
 Launch gallery
The Chicago city flag flying over the Michigan Avenue bridge. You may have seen this around town once or twice. Photo: Chicago Tribune photo by Alex Garcia
The Chicago city flag’s sky-blue bars and red stars are everywhere in this city.
There’s a website devoted to pictures of Chicago Flag Tattoos. The flag is on T-shirts, hats, messenger bags, guitars, golf balls, coffee mugs, pillows, shower curtains and bars of soap. Sometimes, the standard is distorted into new shapes—shamrocks, hearts, pizza slices—or its stars are replaced with sports logos.
As reporter Elliott Ramos suggested in a 2011 post for WBEZ, Chicago’s love affair with its flag seems to have taken off in the 1990s, with an influx of young adults into the city. Michael, a kickball player featured on the Chicago Flag Tattoos website, explains why he felt compelled to have the flag permanently emblazoned on his arm: “After moving to Chicago and living here for a few years, Chicago really kind of took a place in my heart, so I thought it’d be a good thing to do.” Here’s what, exactly, Michael has inked onto his body: The three white stripes represent the North, West, and South sides. The top blue stripe represents Lake Michigan and the North Branch of the Chicago River. The bottom blue stripe represents the South Branch of the river and the canal. The four six-pointed red stars represent major historical events: Fort Dearborn, the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893, and the Century of Progress Exposition of 1933–34.
Symbolism aside, the flag’s simple, bold design is the reason it caught on. On his Urbanophile blog, Aaron M. Renn wrote: “In the United States, I’d have to rate Chicago far and away #1 in the use of official civic symbols (maybe the best in the world for all I know), and also note the overall high level of design quality of these objects … If you come to Chicago, you’ll notice that the city flag is ubiquitous.”
It’s enough to make you wonder: Is this a unique local thing? How do other cities’ flags stack up against Chicago’s?
Turns out, many are bland, and a few are downright appalling. Even the good flags aren’t necessarily well-known by the people of their cities.
When the North American Vexillological Association (vexillology is the study of flags) conducted a survey in 2004 ranking the nation’s best city flags, Chicago’s flag received a stellar 9.03 out of 10 possible points. But that was only good enough to land Chicago in the No. 2 spot. No. 2? Who could possibly beat us?
Here’s a look at 10 rival city flags from around the country—along with their vexillogical merits and local cultural significance. |
