Milwaukee Common Council will vote on new city flag on Tuesday

In 2015, Roman Mars, host of design podcast “99% Invisible,” gave a TED Talk on city flags.

In what was arguably the climax of the presentation, he revealed Milwaukee’s official city flag to a laughing audience. He called it “one of the biggest trainwrecks in vexillological history.”

The YouTube recording of the talk has racked up 5 million views.

The following year, designer Steve Kodis — who was interviewed by Mars for the TED Talk — and nonprofit Better Together ran a contest to select a new, unofficial flag of Milwaukee. Out of over 1,000 entries, judges selected five finalists. Based on 6,000 public comments on the finalists, judges selected the winner: “Sunrise Over the Lake” by Robert Lenz.

They called it the People’s Flag of Milwaukee.

Since then, the design has appeared in gardens, on beer coozies, and even worked its way into Milwaukee Brewers jerseys.

Milwaukee Alder Peter Burgelis introduced a resolution in July to make the People’s Flag official. On Tuesday, the city’s Common Council will vote on the measure.

Flag designs generate significant controversy

Common Council almost adopted the design once already, in 2018. But its Steering & Rules Committee did not approve a vote by the entire council, kicking the issue to the Arts Board instead.

That body said the selection process hadn’t been inclusive enough, especially with respect to participation from people of color. The resolution did not get a full council vote.

This year, the Steering & Rules Committee again considered Burgelis’ resolution.

Alder Russell Stamper cast doubt on Burgelis’ claim that the flag has been widely adopted.

“I guess it depends what district you’re driving through. Not in the 15th,” he said, referring to his majority-Black district.

Stamper also expressed skepticism that the white color of the sunrise was meant to symbolize unity, asking “so this white part has nothing to do with people?”

“I got to let you know, in the beginning, I didn’t feel comfortable talking to people with real problems about this,” said Alder DiAndre Jackson.

According to Burgelis, multiple alders did not solicit community feedback on the design over the summer, though he encouraged them to.

“It has no particular connection to Milwaukee. You look at that flag and, ‘What’s that city?’ Even adding a silhouette of City Hall in the white circle above the blue would at least add something that distinguishes this flag,” said Alder Robert Bauman.

Bauman officially submitted his alternate design idea. It will be voted on tomorrow as well.

Multiple alders agreed there were more pressing issues to get to.

“We need to move on to other things,” said Alder Scott Spiker. The committee forwarded the resolution to Common Council by a vote of 5 to 3.

Current flag is not without admirers

Some online posts show there are admirers of Milwaukee’s current flag, which was assembled by Fred Steffan — a former alderman and artist for Schlitz Brewing Company — in 1954 out of several competing designs.

“I get that it’s definitely not the prettiest thing, but I think it’s got some grit to it,” said James Sprague of the current flag.

“It’s got this embroidery of industry and hardworking symbols, like farming and the ships. I think that’s reflective of Milwaukee,” he said.

Sprague is an engineer who has lived in Milwaukee since 2017. He has posted online in support of the current flag. He said the new People’s Flag “feels like a knockoff of some 2010-2015 graphic designer trends.”

At the Steering & Rules Committee meeting Alder Mark Chambers also said he appreciates the existing flag’s references to Milwaukee’s history: barley, ships, churches and Milwaukee County Stadium.

He also put an alternative spin on the flag’s stereotypical image of a Native American’s head.

“We are on Native land, that’s why the Indian is on there,” Chambers said.

Burgelis said the factories on the current flag depict pollution, and that he can’t even figure out what some of the symbols mean.

“Next to the Indian headdress is the ‘Golden Lamp of Knowledge,’” he said. “I have asked all the smart people at City Hall — no one can give me a good answer on what that means.”

“Those images are a great representation of the City of Milwaukee in 1955; they’re not appropriate, they’re not relevant today,” Burgelis said.

Other Wisconsin cities have flags, too

Milwaukee is not the only city that’s seen discussion on municipal flags.

Madison’s flag was designed in 1962 by Rick and Dennis Stone of the Madison Scouts Drum & Bugle Corps, with help from their color guard instructor John Price.

The golden circle in the middle of the flag replaced a Pueblo Zia symbol in 2018, which appears on the flag of New Mexico and has no relation to Wisconsin.

In 2004, Green Bay replaced a yellow-and-green design featuring a paper towel roll with a flag centering the city’s new seal, which includes the Bay Beach Pavilion and the Green Bay Packers logo.

And in 2017, Milwaukee’s Shepherd Express reported that La Crosse and Eau Claire were also seeing grassroots competitions to nominate new “People’s Flags.”

A Facebook account associated with the People’s Flag of Eau Claire campaign has not been updated since a 2017 post about the flag flying at a local gift shop.