Proposed city flag is a winner

You must admit the proposed design for a new Salt Lake City flag is spiffy. The computer graphics depict the majestic Wasatch range in white and green behind a silhouetted city skyline. Local buildings are recognizable, and the blue and green color scheme gives the impression the image will likely be used and often reproduced.

It is a handsome flag.

Two years ago we suggested that flag designers "go back to the drawing board." The designs offered were simplistic or out-of-touch. "We're confident, given another run at it, artists will catch the spirit," we said.

Designers took another run at it. And this time they came up with a winner.

The new flag uses some design elements from the old — the Wasatch Mountains, for example — and the new reality of the city is highlighted by the diverse use and character of the buildings in the skyline.

The Salt Lake City Council wants the public to weigh in on the design. And weigh in they should. Still, it's hard to imagine any design coming along that is less divisive and more acceptable than this. Anyone who would vote against the new design is quite likely voting other ulterior issues.

At the same time, we suggest the design on the old flag not be put in mothballs but given a place of honor for its historical value. The image of the prairie schooners and a pioneer with his shovel may seem dated now, but the dawning of a new day as the sun blazes above the eastern mountains still captures an ideal that the city can embrace.

We also agree that enough time and tension have been spent on the issue.

As with the debate over the flag-burning amendment, conflicts with the city flag have really been more about ideology and politics than cloth and colors.

Still, if Salt Lakers can come together over selecting a flag, it shines a beam of hope that people in Utah's capital can find common ground on larger, more unwieldy issues.

It's time to unite behind a new city flag and then press for unity on more substantial issues.