I moved back here from Chicago in August, 2005, and my wife just followed last weekend. Over the course of a year and a half living there and then a number of visits since returning to Buffalo, I've had ample time to contemplate the similarities and differences between the two cities- I've often described Chicago as Buffalo-on-steroids, to be honest. They share a history of growth fueled by the processing and transportation--on lakes, canals, railroads--of materials from the expanding American west back and forth to the established east; a growth moreover that produced wealth enough to drive innovative architectural legacies in both cities.

But one very visible difference between the two cities is how their respective flags are used.

Consider this: Chicago's flag is plastered around the city. Of course you see it in a lot of municipal bureaucratic ways, like the parking stickers (and can I add that in no other city will you get a parking ticket quicker than Chicago?) But also, local businesses incorporate the flag, or elements of it, into their logos, one example of which is brewery Goose Island's labels and glassware. I saw punks at shows wearing leather jackets with Chicago flag patches, for real! The flag is all over the place, and I thought it was great.

Have you even seen the Buffalo Municipal Flag?

In search of, I found find the city of Chicago flag in a heartbeat online, including a breakdown of it's symbolism and history at Wikipedia, but Wiki's Buffalo entry (which, if you've never read it, is very good, I think) had only a low-res jpeg. I could find no mention or image of it at the city's official webpage, or that of the CVB.

Here's a telling point: In a 2004 survey of 150 city flags conducted by NAVA (the North American Vexillological Association), Chicago's city flag rated 2nd, behind only Washington D.C.'s. Buffalo's ranked 32nd, thankfully beating out Rochester (53), Cleveland (59) and Boston (133).

I think symbolism means a lot, and I wonder if we couldn't use a better flag for the city to rally around. It seems like a small thing, but it has much merit. If you look at the survey, you'll note that many of the top rated flags use some kind of abstract symbolism in their, em, vexillological designs, while ours is more or less the City Seal on a blue field- it seems a bit lazy, though the rays seem a nice touch. If you look at the very worst flags in the survey, however, you'll see we're not so poorly off, to be sure: Mesa, AZ (146)? yikes!

One might argue that we use Buffalo-silhouettes in much the way you see the flag in Chicago, and I agree that there are a number of great designs of that type. And after all, having an animal name for our city surely makes use of the namesake image inevitable. I think it's great, and I do imagine that in Chicago's case, having no ready image to accompany the name means that a flag becomes a necessary symbol, while maybe we're always going to prefer using the shaggy beast that never did live around here anyway.

But then... Washington, D.C. also has a nice visualizable namesake, yet still developed a very trim flag, reminiscent of Chicago's, in fact. When I look through municipal flag designs, I think the most arresting ones are the more abstract and symbolic ones- they have a certain "official" feeling that the stylized outline of a buffalo seems to lack, I suppose (though note high-ranking Phoenix, AZ.) Besides, while we are certainly the biggest and best-known 'Buffalo' in the 50 states, there are others (e.g. WY & ND) and so a buffalo-shaped image doesn't really uniquely point to us like a snappy flag might. I'm not syaing we can't keep using the myriad buffalo-shaped designs that are out there, I'm just wondering if we couldn't also have a great flag in addition.

So, what do you think: Should we get a new flag here? Or, do we just need a campaign to get that sucker out there more?