Hello! The following email went out to the New Raleigh Flag mailing list this morning. Posting here for those not on the list.
Flag advocates again spoke during the public comment session at the Raleigh city council meeting on Oct 15. As you may have seen in the news, after flag supporters spoke Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin related that she has asked city staff to prepare a report on the possibility of adopting a new flag.
The mayor also stated that there may be some technical challenges related to flag adoption. Organizers have already answered city staff’s questions about one perceived challenge, which was copyrighting (the new flag design is not copyrighted). We’ll remain engaged with the city over the coming weeks as staff investigate the issue and prepare their report. Needless to say, everyone should feel highly encouraged by this development.
We’ll be taking a break from flag advocacy until after elections. Once that democratic dust has settled we’ll be back with more public relations work and calls to action. In the mean time, if you have input, please email us!
Best wishes to everyone for a calm and relaxing election season.
Now that public sentiment has coalesced around this one, it’s by far the easiest thing to do to just push for it - we’re more likely to end up with a decent result, and get it much more quickly, than turning it into a bureaucratic nightmare. It’s a B+ design in my book, but far far better than whatever focus-grouped blandness would result if a bunch of committees and public hearings got their hands on it.
Has public sentiment actually coalesced on this design though? I don’t think so. They have like 300 Instagram followers, and several dozen followers on Facebook. How many signatures did they get on their petition? I know these are available for purchase, and there’s an organized effort to use it, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that public support is behind it. It just means the people who made it have been willing to spend money making product and spend effort making a website and contacting media. The little bit of public reception I’ve seen to this design has been mixed at best.
I see it a lot in my neighborhood - I believe the guy who designed it/is championing it lives down the block from me…personally I don’t dislike it, but I wish it was more colorful (or just not red!) and a little more “complex” - just more going on than it has. Would be fine if this became an official flag, but I’d love it if there were other options
I actually did some drone work for them over on the coast 3-4 years ago.
We also have a friend from NC that now lives just up the keys from us that uses her Shubimi Shade for her boat tours. Here’s a screenshot from one of her videos.
