Books, flag on track in S.L.

Salt Lake City leaders are hoping a couple of citywide projects will have some positive community-building effects in the coming months.

The Salt Lake Mayor's Office launched two programs — one about books, the other about a flag — last week designed to increase social involvement and start people's creative juices flowing.

First the Mayor's Office, joined by the City Council, kicked off a new contest to redesign the city's flag, saying the city needs a flag focusing less on Salt Lake City's pioneer history and more on the city's growing diversity.

"Our history becomes richer with each passing year and, although pioneer images are still a strong piece of that history, they are not the only image that can be used to depict the growing diversity and vibrancy of our city," Mayor Rocky Anderson said in a written statement.

By most accounts, the city's current flag is a little dull. It features an all-white background with a very small decal in the middle that's almost incomprehensible when viewed beneath a large flag pole. The decal includes images of Salt Lake City's pioneer life.

The City Council is supporting the flag redesign.

The city will take designs for the new flag from all comers, according to the mayor's office. Designs are welcome in any format, but the city would prefer designs in an EPS vector-type format, using Adobe Illustrator or Corel Draw, that are scaled to 3 feet by 5 feet.

The designs should be clear and simple and limited to no more than four colors. Designs need to include a brief written description of the meaning and symbolism of the flag.

The mayor's office is asking for designs on disk or CD accompanied by a 8.5-inch by 11-inch copy of the flag. Entries must be submitted by Nov. 30.

A committee made up of members of the mayor's office, City Council and citizens with design experience will review the entries and pick the winner, to be approved by Anderson and the City Council. That selection will be made by January 2005.

The contest's winner will receive a framed copy of the design, signed by the mayor and City Council, and will receive a $100 gift certificate to Reuel's Art and Frame.

For information on designing a flag, visit www.colonialflag.com. For more information about the contest, go to www.slcgov.com.

Also officially kicking off last week was the Salt Lake City Reads Together Program. While many cities started off with just one book, the mayor is starting with three — a juvenile fiction selection, an adult fiction selection and an adult non-fiction selection.

The titles, chosen by a mayoral committee, are "Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH," "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time" and "The Blood Runs Like a River Through My Dreams: A Memoir."

To find a discussion group or a small group meeting go to www.slcreads.com.

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E-mail: bsnyder@desnews.com