Use | Civil and state flag |
---|---|
Proportion | 3:5 |
Adopted | September 4, 2002 |
Design | Nordic-style Brigid's cross design with Blue stripes/arms double-fimbriated by gold on white esquarres, in the center a white astroid hypocycloid, on a green background. |
Designed by | Douglas Lynch |
The city flag of Portland, Oregon, consists of a green field on which is placed a white four-pointed star (a truncated hypocycloid) from which radiate blue stripes, each bordered by L-shaped yellow elements (esquarres). Narrow white fimbriations separate the blue and yellow elements from each other and from the green background. The official ordinance specifies a height of 3 feet and a length of 5 feet for the flag.
City ordinance 176874, adopted September 4, 2002, designates the design and its symbolism. Green represents "the forests and our green City"; yellow represents "agriculture and commerce"; and blue represents "our rivers". [1] Portland straddles the Willamette River near its confluence with the Columbia River. City Ordinance 186794, adopted September 3, 2014, updated the proportions and the Pantone color specifications: White, PMS 279 (Blue); PMS 349 (Green); and PMS 1235 (Yellow).
The flag was designed in 1969 by R. Douglas Lynch, a longtime Portland resident and noted graphic designer (1913–2009) who was chairman of the Portland Art Commission. The original version of the flag was adopted on December 17, 1969, and included a dark blue canton featuring the city seal in yellow and white. [2] The design was criticized for not including a rose (a traditional symbol of the city) or a depiction of Mount Hood; its abstract design was compared to "flags of Socialist countries" and a "fallen cross symbolizing the anti-Christ" by the organization Mothers for Children. [3] Attempts were made to revise the flag to include a new rose shortly after the adoption. [4] The official flag was first displayed on January 30, 1974, after funds to produce the first batch of 100 flags were approved by the city government at the behest of new Art Commission chairperson Libby Solomon. [5]
In 2002, members of the Portland Flag Association successfully lobbied the Portland City Council to simplify the design, aligning it more closely with Lynch's original vision. The revised design—without the city seal—was adopted on September 4, 2002. [6]
The flag's design ranked seventh among the flags of 150 US cities in the North American Vexillological Association's "American City Flag Survey of 2004". [7]
The flag of Oregon is a two-sided flag in navy blue and gold with an optional gold fringe. On the front is the escutcheon from the state seal and on the reverse is a gold figure of a beaver, the state animal. Oregon is the only U.S. State to feature different designs on both sides of its flag.
The Tri-County Metropolitan Transportation District of Oregon (TriMet) is a transit agency that serves most of the Oregon part of the Portland metropolitan area. Created in 1969 by the Oregon legislature, the district replaced five private bus companies that operated in the three counties: Multnomah, Washington, and Clackamas. TriMet began operating a light rail system, MAX, in 1986, which has since been expanded to five lines that now cover 59.7 miles (96.1 km). It also operates the WES Commuter Rail line since 2009. It also provides the operators and maintenance personnel for the city of Portland-owned Portland Streetcar system. In 2023, the system had a ridership of 62,055,600, or about 208,900 per weekday as of the second quarter of 2024.
The state flag of Washington consists of the state seal, displaying an image of its namesake George Washington, on a field of dark green with gold fringe being optional. It is the only U.S. state flag with a field of green as well as the only state flag with the image of an American president. The secretary of state regulates flag protocol related to the state flag, as well approving replica flags for commercial sale and other standards related to the flag.
The North American Vexillological Association (NAVA) is a membership organization devoted to vexillology, the study of flags. It was founded in 1967 by American vexillologist Whitney Smith, and others. Its membership of 1,100+ comprises flag scholars, enthusiasts, designers, collectors, conservators, educators, merchants, manufacturers, historians, and hobbyists from most states and provinces of the United States and Canada, and more than 30 other countries.
The city flag of Los Angeles consists of a background of three notched stripes of green, gold and red. The flag was designed by Roy E. Silent and E.S. Jones in 1931 for the Los Angeles sesquicentennial from 1781.
The flag of Las Vegas consists of blue field with a diagonal gray stripe running from the top of the hoist to the bottom of the fly. Las Vegas' city seal, adopted on March 16, 1966 and designed by Richard Thompson, is located in the canton breaking the stripe.
The flag of St. Louis, Missouri consists of a solid red background and three thick, wavy lines colored blue and white extending from the top left corner, bottom left corner, and center right edge. At the intersection of these lines there is a yellow disk containing a blue fleur-de-lis.
The flags of the provinces of the Philippines are the vexillological devices used by various provincial-level local government units (LGUs) of the country.
The flag of Boston consists of a sky blue field and the seal of the city of Boston, Massachusetts, United States, in the center. The flag is sometimes flown in a darker shade of blue, more of a turquoise. It was designed in 1913 and adopted by the Boston City Council on January 29, 1917.
The current flag of Billings, Montana is a triband of dark blue and white with the city seal on the central white panel. The seal shows the city skyline line-drawn in blue, with a red disc representing the sun. The seal is outlined in blue with the text "Star of the Big Sky Country" in red capitals. It was designed by Fernando Méndez and adopted in June 1986.
The flag of Cincinnati, Ohio was selected in an 1896 contest. It was formally adopted on June 15, 1940.
The flag of Phoenix, Arizona contains a maroon field with a white phoenix emblem in the center. Its design is the second in the city's history and has been in place since 1990, replacing a flag that was adopted in 1921.
The municipal flag of Provo, Utah, United States, features the city's logo on a light blue field. It was adopted on January 6, 2015, after a multi-year debate to replace the previous one. The former flag, adopted in 1989, was ridiculed in particular for its perceived ugliness and its similarity to the Centrum logo, and was voted one of the worst American city flags by the North American Vexillological Association (NAVA).
The flag of Long Beach, California was adopted on July 5, 1967. It incorporates the city's seal, name, and motto on a gold, white, and blue field. The field is designed to be reminiscent of a beach. Each of the colors also has its own meaning, the gold represents the sand on the beach, the white represents the city's clean air, and the blue represents the Pacific Ocean.
The flag of Spokane, Washington comprises a sun in the canton on a white-and-green field separated by a stylized blue river. The flag was adopted in 2021 and is the fourth to be used by the city government.
The current city flag of Columbus, Ohio is a yellow-white-red vertical triband with the city seal on a blue field. Officially, the flag was adopted in 1929, although it is unknown if the flag was ever flown when it was first adopted.
The current city flag of El Paso, Texas is an augmentation of the city's seal in the center of a dark blue field, which has been in place since 1962.
The flag of South Bend, Indiana was adopted by the city council during the mayorship of Pete Buttigieg on April 25, 2016. It is a field of white and yellow separated by a two blue curved lines with a white line between them and a red six-pointed star in the upper left corner.
The city flag of Anchorage, Alaska was adopted by the city of Anchorage in 1973. It is a field of yellow with the seal of the city, which features a blue anchor in the foreground as well as a blue airplane, yellow sun, and yellow sailboat in the background. The words "ANCHORAGE ALASKA" are also present.
The flag of Burlington, Vermont was adopted by the Burlington city council on November 27, 2017 during the mayorship of Miro Weinberger. It is five horizontal, zig-zag stripes of blue, white, green, white, and blue.