Top 150 U.S. city flags ranked -- your thoughts?
 

Here's a link to the top 150 U.S. city flags as ranked by the North American Vexiologist(sp) Association (yes, there's a field of study dedicated to flags).

my thoughts:

-I think Chicago should be #1. Washington D.C.'s, while nice and fitting the qualities of a good flag, feels too ...bureaucratic (yeah, I know, I know..) and soulless to be taking the top position.

-For America's second city, I think Los Angeles needs to look for a new flag. I like that they try to bring in the colors of Mexico and Spain into their design, but I think there's better ways to achieve it. The zig zags and green are what particularly bother me.

-The flag of Fresno, CA looks wayyy too 1960s. Wouldn't be surprised if that's when it was designed. Not that it's a particularly bad thing btw...

-Oakland has a really solid flag. It deserves a place in the top 10 imo (perhaps knocking down Corpus Christi).

-The flags of Arlington and Plano look more like the logo of a gas station.

-As for Pocatello, Idaho, they should at least get points for going all the way and adding "Proud to be" to top it all off :P

Wow, there are some pretty bad flags on that list...though some really good ones too. The Chicago flag has always been a favorite of mine. I have that one on a tshirt and it is my Chicago shirt that only people who really know Chicago seem to know it.

I have always been a fan of the Portland flag, though I feel like it isn't used or represented much here. The green and white flag with the doug fir tree in the middle of it seems to be noticed more.

Also, gotta love the NYC flag for just being a traditional looking flag....with Mets colors.

Glad that the St. Louis flag made it to the top five. Hometown bias aside, I really like it. It looks good flying over red brick.

DC is almost like my 2nd hometown after living there 15 years. It is a good flag, but looks a bit too military. The Boston flag is a dud.

I always disagree with their listings...mostly because I like flags with seals. One of my favorite national flags, for example, is Mexico's.

I don't think these people even realize that Tennessee is a state. Where are the TN flags?

I've always liked Nashville's flag. It's simple, but like hammersklavier, I typically prefer flags with seals.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...ville_flag.png

DC's flag is the coat of arms for George Washington. It isn't "bureaucratic". It is symbolic, and logical. To call it soulless is... extremely uncouth.

Or it's someone's opinion.

I think the rating the lousiest ones is more fun. A lot of the ones near the bottom of the list are pretty tragic.

Yeah... this one is awesome!

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...C_Utah.svg.png

It looks like it should be a brand name on a cheap Mexican laundry detergent box.

I think this has been posted before. But I agree w/ DC ranking near the top. With such a strong Chicago contingent on this board, it's easy to forget that there are a lot of other city flags that people take pride in and are shown often.

I don't see what it so great about DC or Chicago's flag. Stars and a couple stripes.

Now, Provo's on the other hand, fucking rocks. The shadowed font, the upward-slanting rainbow spectrum. It's right there in your face letting you know right the hell where you're at -- Provo, dude.

There are a lot of in-your-face flags w/ the city's name plastered across it, including most of those towards the bottom of the list. Something tells me that the people who voted in the poll don't like that look so much.

^^^ So are most flags? I mean 90% of flags around the world are just a couple of stripes with maybe a seal thrown in. That's the entire point of flags. They are supposed to be abstract symbols of the place they represent. Sort of how sports team's colors come to represent a community. Read up on Chicago's flag and you'll see that everything on the flag represents something relevant to the city's history or geography.

/I can't tell if you are being sarcastic or not Lol...

I don't like DC's flag, it's too lopsided to the top, but it's pretty good.

Chicago's flag is probably easily the most successful. I've never been to any other city where the flag is so noticeable and widely used. Hell I've seen Chicago flags many times outside of Chicago in people's apartments or even being hung from a balcony or flag pole. It's not just the city government that uses it, but even ordinary citizens who use it to represent their civic pride. When you are in Chicago you see the Chicago flag as much if not more often than the US flag.

Lol, seriously? Do they really have a flag where the text has shadowing? Did they draw this up in 1995 using Lotus Word Pro?

Come to DC and you will see the DC flag all over the place. You see the American flag, the state flags, and other country's flags, but the DC flag is also prominent, including on every license plate.

http://cache.boston.com/resize/bonza..._5116/539w.jpg

While there are a lot of duds, too, there are more cool city flags out there than I would have guessed.

Also nice to see quite a few displaying French influence with a Fleur-de-lis.

I was gonna say the Chicago flag is the only one I even know! (as a non-American).

While my favorite flag is probably Chicago's, I have soft spots for a few other flags. I love the black and yellow contrast on Pittsburgh's flag, and the shield has this sort of gritty feel to me that fits Pittsburgh well, with the looming castle and heavy lines. Baltimore's flag has the same eye-catching color scheme, but in the slanting manner of the Maryland state flag/Calvert family shield.

Another one I like is Detroit's flag, from the history in the quadrants by way of the various flags that have flown over Detroit, to the colorful seal with the city mottos (We hope for better things, We shall rise from the ashes) that seem almost prescient for that sad city... The flag even has a cameo in a couple of the Chrysler 300 commercials focusing on Detroit.

discounting chicago's flag out of my own hometown bias, i think st. louis has a great city flag. honorable mentions to indy, DC, and denver.

i do NOT like words or seals or highly intricate designs on flags. flag design should be simple, straightforward, and readable from a decent distance.

The great thing about the Chicago flag is that it can be incorporated into designs. There's hundreds of variations of them that I've seen around town, including this one:

http://www.zazzle.com/chicago_hip_ho...12680119348359


:D

Washington and Chicago's flags do nothing for me. Portland's Confluence Cross is the best.