National Review
Andrew Yang’s unfounded call to retire the New York City flag
On February 1, Andrew Yang – the New York author, businessman, nonprofit, and candidate for the 2020 Democratic presidency now running for mayor of New York City – tweeted that the official flag of his adopted city, a flag that stayed iconic hovering over the New York skyline since 1915, it should be unceremoniously removed and replaced with a less “old” design. “The colors are based on the flag of the Dutch prince. . . . The seal is old, ”said Yang, referring to the official NYC seal carried by the flag. “Corey Johnson [speaker of the NYC Council] he proposed having a new flag designed by artists in New York as a symbol of civic pride, ”said Yang – and Yang apparently agrees with him:“ I like the idea of a more modern flag for New York ”. In Mr. Yang’s philosophy, longevity is, of course, no sign of success. Forget the flag design for a moment. Why worry about the age of the flag? New York City itself was first colonized in 1624 and is therefore centuries older than the flag that Yang thinks is too geriatric to represent it. Should New York, or New York State itself, therefore, be abolished? Certainly not. Old age as old age is not an argument against the New York flag. Yang needs a better argument to convince New York to abolish the iconic flag designed by the 1915 mayor’s committee. So sufficient with mere age as an argument. And the flag itself? Should the New York City flag be thrown in the dustbin of history? Prior to June 1915, New York City had no official flag and used, on an ad hoc basis, an unofficial white flag with the city’s seal. “To date,” as reported in New York City’s Seal and Flag (published in 1915), “New York City has never owned an official flag in the true sense of the term.” Mayor John Purroy Mitchel has appointed a citizen-led committee to produce an official flag and present a standardized and historically informed version of the city’s seal. The occasion was the 250th anniversary of the inauguration of New York City’s first mayor and city council in 1665, marking the beginning of “New York City” under English rule and the end of Dutch rule over New Amsterdam – plus a period in 1673-74 when the Netherlands regained control. The blue-white-orange tricolor produced by the mayor’s committee and approved by city councilors in 1915 was an overwhelming design victory and has flown with pride and distinction over the New York skyline for the past 105 years. The city’s flag and the seal it carries combine the colors of the Dutch Republic flag with an “distinctly American” eagle crest on the city’s English-style arms, creating a bold emblem that unmistakably represents New York and its past. The flag was intended to show the identity and genesis of an extremely proud American city. It was consciously created to evoke the heritage and history of New York and New Amsterdam before it. The emblem’s apparent “old age” is intentional, not accidental. But it seems that this whole story has been lost in today’s anti-flag crowd. New York City Flag The coup de grace for the New York City flag design is that it succeeds as a bold and energetic-looking symbol in a way that is in fact fostered, not obscured, by its roots in the past. It also has the official stature needed for a city like New York. While modern flag designers often criticize the practice of putting stamps on flags, if any design were an exception to this rule, it would be the New York flag. The project works, and is 105 years old. Why punish this flag for its success? The same can be said of the stamp design itself. By presenting its version of the city seal to the council for approval, the 1915 Art Committee responded to an expected criticism of the project. The committee’s response anticipated the complaints made by Yang more than a century later: “It is by no means a new design,” said John B. Pine of the official Art Committee, “and any criticism that it is not pretty or does not meet to heraldic requirements is irrelevant. ”He added: Undoubtedly, a more beautiful seal could be designed, but we consider it much more important to perpetuate the seal that was adopted by the Common Council in 1686 and that since that date has been used by the city, but with minor modification as the symbol of your corporate entity. (These words are found in the book mentioned above, New York City Seal and Flag. By the way, John B. Pine himself edited the beautifully bound volume, which was officially authorized by the committee the mayor’s seal and flag. is a great read for anyone interested in the history of Gotham civic symbols. You can find it at the New York Public Library and online. detailed icon of city emblems and the new official flag. Appropriately, it is bound with the blue and orange dyes of the city flag. Evidently, the editor did not share Yang’s fears about the colors of the “Dutch Prince”.) Anyone concerned that the city’s flag seal was “old” missed the boat with his concern for a good hundred years. The label was already a venerable age in 1915, when the art committee and councilors enthusiastically affixed it to the new Gotham tricolor. Far from being deficient in civic pride, the flag was conceived from the beginning to be a grand and civic project that would promote pride in a great American city. Citizen artists have already designed the current flag, so removing it would do nothing but obscure their work. This would create the same error that a “new flag” is supposed to remedy. This suggests that those who oppose the flag do not understand its history and see it as a fair game to create excitement and novelty for a pet civic project. Finally, New York City is far from the only city or county that features the old Dutch colors of New Amsterdam. I am a lifelong resident of Dutchess County, New York, which is also based on that aesthetic. But at least the NYC flag incorporates Dutch colors in the vertical bars. With its horizontal orange-white-blue tricolor, the Dutchess County flag is an exact reproduction of the Dutch Prinsenvlag, distinguished only by the county seal. Ulster County is in the same situation, as is Albany, the capital of New York State. Yang’s home county of Westchester, appropriately, also visibly bears the Dutch kleuren on its flag. Americans have doggedly shown their heritage through civic symbols throughout the country’s history. Before issuing another direct judgment on a classic American emblem like the New York flag, Yang and his anti-flag allies must recognize this fact. After all, the American flag itself bears the title “Ancient Glory” – and not as an insult. Editor’s Note: This article has been updated since its original publication.