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It’s a truly vexing problem: So many municipal flags are excruciatingly bland.
Boston’s flag, 100 years old this year, is a typical example: The city’s seal on a solid background—literal, lacking in symbolism, basically pointless.
It doesn’t have to be so. There’s no hard-and-fast rule that says the city can’t change the design that Mayor James Michael Curley adopted way back when.
Yet, per the Globe’s Malcolm Gay, Boston has no proposals pending for redesigning its flag. In fact, Gay writes, “of the roughly eight New England campaigns that have been launched since 2015, not one has resulted in a city adopting a new flag design.”
That shouldn’t stop you, dear reader. How would you redesign the flag of your city or town? What symbols would you use (for symbols are what it’s all about—a flag expert tells Gay that “if you have to put your name on your flag, your symbolism has failed”)?
Take a stab at it in the comments section below. And, if you somehow have no idea what your municipal flag looks like, click over to Flags of the World and find out.