Milwaukee alderman proposes new city flag option featuring City Hall
MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- The fight to adopt a new official city flag for Milwaukee will go another round. Ald. Robert Bauman on Thursday filed a proposed amendment to next week's Common Council vote to adopt a new flag has already flown across the city for nearly a decade.
Bauman proposed altering the "Sunrise Over the Lake" design, also known as the "People's Flag," which depicts a sunrise over Lake Michigan. The flag won a citywide contest in 2016.
Bauman, who chairs of the council's public works committee, has offered a version that places an image of City Hall at the center of the flag.
“The ‘Sunrise Over the Lake’ flag lacks any key identifying features that we associate with Milwaukee,” Bauman's statement read. “My proposed substitute flag design retains basic layout and design of the People’s Flag but incorporates an image of City Hall which enhances the flag’s association with the City of Milwaukee.”
Ald. Robert Bauman's proposed flag would place an image of City Hall in the middle of the design.
Steve Kodis, who helped run the 2016 People's Flag contest, said the sight of Sunrise Over the Lake outside houses and as a design on hats and shirts is evidence the community has embraced the flag.
"Every day, I see something new," Kodis said. "Someone using it in a new, interesting way."
Kodis said there was plenty of Milwaukee symbolism in the flag, but it's subtle. According to the flag's website, the gold upper half represents the city's brewing history while the lower half symbolizes Lake Michigan. Within the sunrise, there are three light blue stripes. They pay homage to the three settlements, Kilbourn Town, Juneau Town and Walker's Point -- that eventually merged to become Milwaukee. The stripes also represent the three rivers running through the city, the Kinnickinnic, Milwaukee and Menomonee.
People who study the meaning of flags, known as vexillologists, say subtle, simple symbolism is the hallmark of a great flag.
Ted Kaye, secretary of the North American Vexillological Association, said Milwaukee's current flag, adopted in 1955, is one of the worst municipal flags in the U.S. because it's anything but simple.
"The current flag of Milwaukee is an unfortunate kitchen sink flag that has been rated one of the poorest designs by public surveys of flag design in the United States," he said Thursday.
Critics have maligned the current flag as being too busy, outdated and offensive as it includes images of the old Milwaukee County Stadium and a Native American head.
The current Milwaukee city flag (left) has been roundly criticized by vexillologists as one of the worst municipal flags in the U.S.
Kaye was one of the judges in the 2016 Milwaukee flag contest that named five finalists before a citywide vote. He said the sunrise design is ideal because it's simple, and it can be used in a variety of ways.
Kaye listed the flags of Canada, California and Chicago as ideal flags because of their simplicity, symbolism and ability to be incorporated in lots of different designs.
"Those flags create a template that can be changed," Kaye said. "And 'Sunrise over the Lake,' with its simple design, provides a canvass that can be used in that way."
On social media Thursday, Bauman's City Hall-centric design spawned all kinds of new flag designs mocking his proposal.
A staffer in Bauman's office said the alderman was not available for an interview Thursday and asked a CBS 58 reporter to email a list of questions. As of late Thursday night, Bauman's office did not respond to questions asking whether Bauman's proposal was serious or if it was a joke mocking Milwaukee's years-long flag ordeal.
On Sept. 9, the Steering and Rules Committee voted 5-3 to recommend approval of adopting the sunrise flag as the new official city flag.
Both the original sunrise flag and Bauman's substitute will be considered by the full council when it meets Tuesday, Sept. 24. The meeting will begin at 9 a.m. and will be streamed on the city website at www.city.milwaukee.gov/Channel25.