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Syracuse Unveils New Flag on Flag Day Syracuse Unveils New Flag on Flag Day

By Samuel St. Jean

Matt Kibby: A national celebration leaves an impact on a local community. Good afternoon and welcome to NCC News at 4:45. I’m Matt Kibby.

Jailah Pettis: And I’m Jailah Pettis. It’s flag day and Syracuse is celebrating. That’s our top story.

Kibby: A new flag will soon be flying over the city of Syracuse. For more than 100 years the city of Syracuse has been represented by a special flag. And now, that’s about to change. NCC News reporter Sammy St. Jean is live outside Syracuse city hall with more on the Salt City’s new image.

Sammy St. Jean: Yeah, I know flag day is a national holiday but Syracuse is doing something a little different. Their flag was 100 years old plus and it was time for a change. And that flag is finally here.

Eric Hart: It’s as if I was born to do this.

St. Jean: That is how Eric Hart felt when he first noticed the Syracuse flag design competition. He is an eighth generation Syracusan who was in the midst of a 13 year period outside of the city. While in Tokyo Eric saw the competition and knew it was his time.

Hart: I was in bed and I was browsing Instagram and I saw that it was happening And so I said, Now now’s the time. I’m just going to do this and see where it goes. And the deeper I really got into it, the more passion grew in me to really take this on in a very serious way.

St. Jean: Eric Ennis thinks that connection to the city and the passion he showed stood out. Although during the initial process Adapt CNY received over 300 anonymous submissions, the thoughtfulness of Hart was evident as a man who went through around 270 designs on his own to create the eventual winner.

Eric Ennis: All of that process that was done, you know, at the time that it was being vetted by the committee was anonymous. So the committee members didn’t know any of that as they were picking the finalists.

St. Jean: This whole process began because the people of Syracuse were largely unattached or even unfamiliar with the fact that Syracuse had a flag. While the big identifier in the city has been Syracuse University, this flag gives people of Syracuse something to be proud of.

Hart: We need our own identity that is separate from Syracuse University. This is a flag that’s going to represent the pride and the passion and the industriousness and the hopes and the dreams of the people.

St. Jean: So, although the vote came today, actually it didn’t come today, they kind of selected and unveiled the flag. The vote is actually coming next week on Tuesday. I know personally I couldn’t be more ecstatic about a new flag here in Syracuse, it is well overdue. But we will contain my excitement and I will send it to you two back in the studio.

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC News) – A new flag will soon be flying over the city of Syracuse. For more than 100 years, the city of Syracuse has been represented by a special flag. And now, that flag’s about to change.

“It’s as if I was born to do this,” said Eric Hart, whose design was picked as the favorite.

That is how Hart felt when he first noticed the Syracuse flag design competition. He is an eighth generation Syracusan who was in the middle of a 13-year period living outside the city. After bouncing between New York City and Japan, Hart was in Tokyo when he first came across the competition. He knew right away that it was his time to act.

“I was in bed and I was browsing Instagram and I saw that it was happening,” said Hart. “And so I said, Now, now’s the time. I’m just going to do this and see where it goes. And the deeper I really got into it, the more passion grew in me to really take this on in a very serious way.”

Eric Ennis from Adapt CNY thinks that the connection to the city Hart has and the passion he showed stood out. Although during the initial process Adapt CNY received over 300 anonymous submissions, the thoughtfulness of Hart was evident as a man who went through around 270 designs on his own to create the eventual winner. His design reflected the effort he put in and his story only helped when it came to the final four submissions.

“All of that process that was done, you know, at the time that it was being vetted by the committee was anonymous,” Ennis said. “So the committee members didn’t know any of that as they were picking the finalists.”

This whole process began because the people of Syracuse were largely unattached or even unfamiliar with the fact that Syracuse had a flag. While the big identifier in the city has been Syracuse University, this flag gives people of Syracuse something to be proud of.

“We need our own identity that is separate from Syracuse University,” said Ennis. “This is a flag that’s going to represent the pride and the passion and the industriousness and the hopes and the dreams of the people.”

One step still remains to complete the flag selection process.When the common council meets next week on Tuesday they will have the chance to vote. A successful vote would make Eric Hart’s First Light flag the official flag for the city of Syracuse.

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