New Milwaukee flag; Common Council to vote again
MILWAUKEE - It's been called one of the worst-designed city flags in the country.
After an intense debate, and a rarely-used move to delay a vote, Tuesday, Oct. 15, aldermen are expected to decide whether to change the flag from this to this.
Aldermen have been discussing this at Milwaukee City Hall for close to a decade.
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The official city flag was first adopted in the 1950s and has been called outdated and even offensive. In 2015, it was called out in a TED Talk as one of the worst-designed flags in the country.
That inspired a Milwaukee graphic designer to create a contest to pick a new city flag.
The winner, called "Sunrise Over the Lake," has been around since 2016. It has been widely adopted by many in the community and named "The People’s Flag," but has never been officially named as the new Milwaukee flag.
Alderman Peter Burgelis is trying to change that.
New Milwaukee flag; Common Council votes to delay
The Milwaukee Common Council will continue the debate over changing Milwaukee's city flag after some council members called the possible replacement, "The People's Flag," does not represent all people.
"A sunrise over the lake, I see as a new dawn, a new day for our community, a new day, a new dawn for our city where we’re looking forward to our future, where we’re headed where we want to go instead of looking back at 1955," Burgelis said.
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He's been met with pushback from some city leaders. At the most recent council meeting discussing the flag, they said they didn't like the design, or the process of creating it.
"That's not the People's Flag if it passes by one vote," Alderman Bob Bauman said.
Last month, aldermen opposed to the new flag used a rare move to delay the vote to Tuesday, Oct. 15.
If it is approved by the council, it will go to the mayor's desk. A staffer from the mayor's office said he's waiting to listen to the debate before he takes a position.