CouveCast

CouveCast episode 1 History of the current City of Vancouver flag

• Steve Harris

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Join me in a discussion with the City of Vancouver's Mayor, Anne McEnerny-Ogle about the history of the current city flag and looking forward to choosing a new one. We will talk about involving the community and the process of selection. This will be part one of a 5-part series about the new City of Vancouver flag.

Speaker:

Welcome to CouveCast, the City of Vancouver's official podcast hosted by Steve Harris. Each episode is a mix of city insights, stories, behind the scenes, and hopefully a few laughs along the way. No jargon, just real talk with the people shaping Vancouver's future. One episode at a time.

Speaker 2:

Well, welcome to our first pilot episode of CouveCast. And I'll be honest, until recently, I haven't given much thought to city flags, but today's episode changed that. We're joined today by our very own Mayor, Anne McEnerny-Ogle, Hi Steve. Who's been at the heart of a project to create a new Vancouver flag. Together, we'll dive into the journey of redesigning our city flag, what sparked the idea, how the community got involved, and what a new flag means for the community. Whether you're a vexillologist or just curious about how a piece of fabric can represent an entire city, this conversation is for you. Welcome, Mayor Anne, and thanks for being a part of this episode. Thank you, Steve. Our Pilot City Vancouver episode. Who better to have as a guest than the Mayor of Vancouver?

Speaker 1:

Thank you.

Speaker 2:

Thank you for being here.

Speaker 1:

You bet.

Speaker 2:

So, to start with, for those of us who've never thought much about flags, why do they matter?

Speaker 1:

Well, it didn't matter for centuries, and then the Romans brought it all together with their banners and their cavalry and such. And it's really just a representation of an organization or a city or a government. It's that unique identity, it's the that powerful symbol that everyone can get behind. And it fosters civic pride, it brings up values and aspirations, and it's just that simple, iconic, recognizable visual that people can say, I'm a part of that.

Speaker 2:

Exciting.

Speaker 1:

It is, it is.

Speaker 2:

And um Vancouver, now, so going back a little bit, Vancouver's first city flag was adopted in 1993. Can you tell us about how that original flag came to be?

Speaker 1:

Well, actually, we can't. No, no, no. It's a good secret. And so when they looked back into the minutes of the meeting, it appears that a staff member may have put it together. Okay. And it was one of those simple little resolutions. We need a flag. Someone made a flag, brought it forward, and they said this is symbolic of our city. It has river, it has some mountains, it has a sky with a sun shining on it. It says, a colorful past, a bright future. And it had very limited public engagement. Okay, brought forward, but it was to symbolize Vancouver's emergence as a world-class city.

Speaker 2:

And certainly not uh the process that this flag's gonna go through.

Speaker 1:

No, no, no. But when people look at it, they see this huge bird like an eagle with a seagull head.

Speaker 2:

So one might not even know that's actually a city of Vancouver flag if you just looked at the flag.

Speaker 1:

No, and in fact, staff took it out to Farmers Market and held it up and said, Do you know what this is? And know what that was. So I thought, okay, it might be time to help. No one had it tattooed on their arm. Yes.

Speaker 2:

Okay, so uh moving on to the new flag, what inspired the idea of creating a new city flag? Other than that one was unrecognizable.

Speaker 1:

Right, no, it was time. So Vancouver was founded 200 years ago, along with Fort Vancouver. Both were founded 200 years ago. So this bicentennial opportunity was one of those moments that we said, how can we celebrate that founding? And I know the unincorporated uh the incorporation of Vancouver isn't until 57, in 2057. But 200 years is kind of special for a founding. And so our staff, Laura and the team, said, Let's do the flag. I had wanted to do the flag, but several people thought, no, no, too much work, not enough time. But Laura jumped right in and said, Okay, let's do it. So we're excited about it.

Speaker 2:

And and it's been a pretty uh eventful turnout so far. What are your thoughts on this so far?

Speaker 1:

Well, when it went out to the world, of course, there were some individuals who were not real happy with us about spending any time. Yeah. However, we asked the community, here are some specifications that we need to work around, some guidelines. Yeah. What are your thoughts? 138 entries were submitted. Amazing. I I got an email from a gentleman in Brazil that asked if he could submit an entry, even though he didn't live in Vancouver. We said, yes, of course. So we had several out of state, several out of the nation, but the majority of all of the designs came from Vancouver individuals. Uh, several young people, a lot of just great ideas. And so as we were looking at them, we said, you know, we have these beautiful windows at City Hall. Let's plaster all of the windows at City Hall during the Arts and Music Festival. Hundreds and hundreds of people came up. Yes, stood there and pointed, had their pictures taken with their entry, or they put their child up next to what they thought was might be the winning flag design.

Speaker 2:

So not a prerequisite to be a Vancouver citizen.

Speaker 1:

No, no, no, no. But the designs, uh we've had workshops, we had design submissions, we have a task force that works, uh, that worked on it. We had, you mentioned the word vexillogical.

Speaker 2:

Yes. That's a tough word to say.

Speaker 1:

And it's a new word, actually. Yes. They said it was developed in the 50s. Vexillological group, studying flags, even writing a book about what makes a good flag. Simplicity, iconic, uh recognizable visual, two to three colors. The colors are supposed to relate to symbolism of the community or the organization. They said a child should be able to draw your flag from memory. Okay.

Speaker 2:

Okay.

Speaker 1:

So as we looked at that, the nine individuals on that committee kind of culled down from 138 to about nine-ish or so, and asked the folks from the vexillological association to take a look at these because some had great elements, but not in that combination. So maybe we could take something from this one, something from that one, put them together, and create a flag.

Speaker 2:

So with that in mind, um how important was it to involve the community?

Speaker 1:

Oh, absolutely.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

This is not as opposed to the previous one here. This is not the government flag. This is the people's flag. Yeah. In fact, they go so far as to say don't put the government seal or even the name, letter Vancouver, Washington. Don't put that on the flag. It should be a symbol of the community. Okay. And that is why the community has been giving us their input on which flag or which elements of the flag should be on their flag.

Speaker 2:

Really representing the community. Right. Yeah.

Speaker 1:

And one of the interesting things about it, Steve, the flag for the most part of the day hangs. So you don't see a lot of the flag.

Speaker 2:

Good point.

Speaker 1:

So when the flag is blowing in the wind, it waves, so you don't have to put ripples on the water. Sure, right. And that is what we are learning about how is the flag used, how will it be used as a symbol of the community, not the government. So businesses and residents and everyone.

Speaker 2:

Excellent. Exciting. Yep. Did you learn anything surprising about flag design during this process? Obviously, again, gonna be a little different than the original.

Speaker 1:

Yes, yes, yes. Well, and and my first thought was when I was looking at flags, I expected it to see Vancouver, Washington incorporated in 1857, blah, blah, blah. No, no, no, no, no.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

Those are old flag designs, old thinking. And when you think about even the United States flag.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. No words in that.

Speaker 1:

No words. Symbols. Three colors. And you can recognize it as it hangs, as it blows. Think of all the different places people have used that symbol on coffee cups or pens or hats, um, tattoos, recognizable in heartbeat. Yes. Yeah. And so that was the study of flags. And then when people think about the New Mexico flag or the Chicago flag, even the New Portland flag, I'm not used to seeing, but now that I'm paying attention to it, I'm seeing it in several different places. Simplicity.

Speaker 2:

Wouldn't it be something that the city news the new City of Vancouver flag became recognizable to most citizens in the city?

Speaker 1:

That would be wonderful.

Speaker 2:

I mean, what if there was a city new city flag tattoo? That could happen. You never know, right?

Speaker 1:

We we could have that symbol on a number of different things. And yes, tattoos might be one of them. Or a coffee cup or tourists or or new shoes, sports shoes, sports uniforms, um, a logo on a brewery or something like that. Yes.

Speaker 2:

But as you said, it would be that recognizable. People as soon as they saw it, they would know what that's for.

Speaker 1:

I know that. That's the Vancouver flag.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

And a child could draw it by memory.

Speaker 2:

That that's a great line.

Speaker 1:

That is.

Speaker 2:

Um now this I kind of kind of know the answer to, but but just coming from the mayor, are we required to display these flags at city buildings?

Speaker 1:

Yes. We have a state law that requires us to fly the U.S. flag, the state flag, and the POW MIA flag on or near our buildings and such. So you will see those. And that's state law. So that's a that's those that's an easy question.

Speaker 2:

And you would be seeing it at city council meetings.

Speaker 1:

Yes, you would.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. Yeah. And there's an order to that. I didn't know this before previously, but I do know the order of the city, state, and U.S. flags.

Speaker 1:

Right. And so when you look at a speaker, there's flag etiquette of where the United States flag always is in whatever uh building meeting, a speaker when you go to conferences, the United States flag, and then the state, and then the local, and then others.

Speaker 2:

And if they're not in the right order, somebody's gonna notice.

Speaker 1:

And they usually do.

Speaker 2:

Hopefully before the meeting starts.

Speaker 1:

And they turn the flags and they get the eagle shine facing forward.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, looking just right.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 2:

Uh so the new flag will fly at the city buildings. But do you have any hopes for how the community might display this flag?

Speaker 1:

Well, I hope that businesses starting off, businesses start displaying the flag. Uh, neighborhood associations. Good one. Uh all you know, neighbors put up flags, right? We have the U.S. flag. I don't have a state flag, but I'd be thinking I have two sides to my porch, I'll put the US here and the Vancouver over on that side. The opportunity to carry it in all of our parades, our Veterans Day Parade, for example, should be a great honor for all of the different organizations to carry a Vancouver flag, if hopefully theirs from Vancouver.

Speaker 2:

Yes.

Speaker 1:

But in schools, in different meetings and conferences, and on and on and on and on, the community, I'm hoping the community draws that in and accepts it. And they are, well, we could have contests. We could we could fly the flag over City Hall and at the end of the month uh make it an award for someone who got their Eagle Project or their gold award or was uh citizen of the year. Here is a Vancouver flag that flew over City Hall for the month of February, your birthday month, or whatever. Flying in the breeze on a boat on the Columbia River? Absolutely. Absolutely. Oh, Christmas. Christmas parade ships. All the colorful we need to.

Speaker 2:

Ooh. And who better person to recommend this than the mayor of City of Vancouver? I think you're onto something here.

Speaker 1:

Which boat will make our flag in lights for the Christmas shifts.

Speaker 2:

No matter which way the wind blows. Yeah, this would be fantastic.

Speaker 1:

There you go, we got it.

Speaker 2:

I like it. Okay. Uh, you know, 138 flags, uh drawings that have been turned in. Um, obviously, there's been interest. There's been a couple of videos put up on the cities YouTube page. Those have gotten quite a few views. Uh, your take on all this interest on the new city flag thus far.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely exciting. We will celebrate that new flag the Friday after Thanksgiving is our date right now. Okay. So, as you know, we light the trees in Estershire Park on that Friday after Thanksgiving. The Rotary Group from downtown uh puts that on and we attend all of that. Right now, the plan is to show the flag and have the Glockenspiel chime.

Speaker 2:

Oh wow, timing has a lot of things. Is it gonna work with that timing?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so a little bicentennial celebration. We should have cupcakes and hot cocoa because it's a city of Vancouver hot cakes, yes. Yes, and celebrate the 200th bicentennial with a new flag, the tower, the glockenspiel, the clock hopefully is on time. We light the lights, what a wonderful opportunity, and congratulate the winners because I suspect we'll take elements of different flag entries, put them together and such, and bring up those artists and say thank you.

Speaker 2:

And what better way to debut with? I mean, that's usually quite a turnout.

Speaker 1:

Oh, yeah. Let's hope for good weather. We've had rain before, they still come out. So we can do that.

Speaker 2:

So, with that in mind, would that be would the flag be ready for council meetings and everything else?

Speaker 1:

Wow.

Speaker 2:

Okay, so that would be the time. Yeah, yeah. Mark your calendars.

Speaker 1:

I will.

Speaker 2:

Yes. Well, um, I think that's gonna be about it for us today. Thank you for joining us, Mayor Anne.

Speaker 1:

What a wonderful opportunity. And thank you for thanking your podcasts. This is fun.

Speaker 2:

It's been real fun, and thank you for joining us on our pilot City of Vancouver podcast, CouveCast. Absolutely. Uh, for those of you interested in more information about uh the new city flag, you can check out the website at cityofvancouver.us /flag. And thank you very much for joining us on our pilot episode of CouveCast. If you enjoyed this episode, share it with a friend and leave us a review or fly your civic pride a little higher today. Until next time.