More than enough city government time has been devoted to the city’s selection of a new flag, which from what we can tell was a vanity project of the mayor for no evident reason beyond being able to play Betsy Ross.
By a vote of 9-1, with two members not present, city council on Tuesday adopted the recommended flag design from the Arts Commission of Greater Toledo to coincide with the city’s 188th birthday .
The recommended design should not have been kept a secret until minutes before the vote. Council members should have been given time to think about the decision and weigh the public’s reaction, rather than acting under artificial urgency, as the no-voter, George Sarantou, said.
Anyway, long may it wave — until the next mayor comes along with an itch to reflag the city.
Ideally Toledo’s leader will now move on to more important development projects that create community prosperity rather than mere imagery.
According to the conventions of modern vexillology (flag design), the previous flag (created in 1994) was outdated for several reasons. Among them are that flags should have simple elements, a limited number of colors, and no words. One of the tenets of vexillology is that the elements of the flag should be simple enough to be easily drawn by a child.