The flag of San Jose is the official municipal flag of

San Jose, California San Jose, officially San José (; ; ), is a major city in the U.S. state of California that is the cultural, financial, and political center of Silicon Valley and largest city in Northern California by both population and area. With a 2020 popul ...

. The current design, a triband of gold on top, white in the middle, and blue on the bottom with the city's official seal in the center, has been the official flag since 1984. A redesign effort in 2016 garnered press coverage in

The Mercury News ''The Mercury News'' (formerly ''San Jose Mercury News'', often locally known as ''The Merc'') is a morning daily newspaper published in San Jose, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is published by the Bay Area News Group, a subsidiar ...

and CBS 5 KPIX, but nothing came of it, with a city spokesman saying it was not one of the city's priorities.

Design and symbolism

The blue and gold stripes may symbolize the state of

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, as they are the state's official colors. The seal of the flag is one unit in diameter, with the entire flag having a 3 unit by 5 unit proportion. The seal is a black-outlined gold ring with "CITY OF SAN JOSÉ" and "CALIFORNIA" in black

block letters Block letters (known as printscript, manuscript, print writing or ball and stick in academics) are a sans-serif (or "gothic") style of writing Latin script in which the letters are individual glyphs, with no joining. Elementary education in Eng ...

, separated by black six-pointed stars. The white space enclosed within the ring consists of a gold

wheat Wheat is a grass widely cultivated for its seed, a cereal grain that is a worldwide staple food. The many species of wheat together make up the genus ''Triticum'' ; the most widely grown is common wheat (''T. aestivum''). The archaeologi ...

sheaf Sheaf may refer to: * Sheaf (agriculture), a bundle of harvested cereal stems * Sheaf (mathematics), a mathematical tool * Sheaf toss, a Scottish sport * River Sheaf, a tributary of River Don in England * ''The Sheaf'', a student-run newspaper ser ...

and

grapevines ''Vitis'' (grapevine) is a genus of 79 accepted species of vining plants in the flowering plant family Vitaceae. The genus is made up of species predominantly from the Northern Hemisphere. It is economically important as the source of grapes, b ...

tied with a golden bow. The wheat and grapevines symbolize the area's

agricultural Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating Plant, plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of Sedentism, sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of Domestication, domesticated species created food ...

products, the largest industry in the area prior to the shift towards technological products. Attached below the seal is an oval bearing the text "FOUNDED 1777". The seal was officially adopted on September 9, 1850.

History

First flag

Flag of San Jose, California (1969–1984)

The first flag was designed by city historian Clyde Arbuckle. The flag was a white

field Field may refer to: Expanses of open ground * Field (agriculture), an area of land used for agricultural purposes * Airfield, an aerodrome that lacks the infrastructure of an airport * Battlefield * Lawn, an area of mowed grass * Meadow, a grass ...

with a gold and blue border, with the gold surrounding the blue, and a white border on the very outside of the flag. In the middle of the flag is the city's seal. The text "SAN JOSE’ CALIFORNIA" is above the seal and "FOUNDED 1777" is below. Both of these are in black font. The proportions were 3 by 4.5, and was officially adopted on June 2, 1969.

Second flag

The second flag saw the removal of the borders and big text, replacing the borders with a triband with the same color scheme and the text was made smaller to surround the seal. This flag was made by both the rules committee and San Jose's Historic Landmark Commission, at the request of the

San Jose City Council The San Jose City Council, officially San José City Council, is the legislature of the government of the City of San Jose, California. As the Mayor of San Jose, Sam Liccardo casts the 11th vote on matters before the council and acts as chair ...

. The flag's proportions were also increased to 3 by 5. The flag ranked 78th out of 150 American city flags in a 2004

North American Vexillological Association The North American Vexillological Association (NAVA) is a membership organization devoted to vexillology, the scientific and scholarly study of flags. It was founded in 1967 by American vexillologist Whitney Smith (1940–2016), and others. Its ...

survey.

Usage

San Jose's official flag policy mandates that the flag be flown at the city hall, the police administration building, the

San Jose Civic The San Jose Civic (formerly known as the San Jose Civic Auditorium and City National Civic) is a former arena, currently operating as a theatre, located in downtown San Jose, California. The venue is owned by the City of San Jose, is managed by ...

San Jose International Airport Norman Y. Mineta San Jose International Airport , commonly known simply as San Jose International Airport, is a city-owned public airport in San Jose, California, United States. It is named after San Jose native Norman Mineta, former United Sta ...

, and all fire and police department facilities, in addition to city council chambers and the mayor's office. The

San Jose Earthquakes The San Jose Earthquakes are an American professional soccer team based in San Jose, California. The Earthquakes compete as a member club of the Western Conference of Major League Soccer (MLS). Originally as the San Jose Clash, the franchise ...

' current away jersey is influenced by the city's flag, featuring the same gold-white-blue triband.

Gallery

Sanjosecityhall.jpg, San Jose City Hall, note the city flag flying left of the rotunda San Jose -California- (32640878434).jpg, Flag flying alongside the

Flag of the United States The national flag of the United States, United States of America, often referred to as the ''American flag'' or the ''U.S. flag'', consists of thirteen equal horizontal stripes of red (top and bottom) alternating with white, with a blue rect ...

and the

Flag of California The Bear Flag is the official flag of the U.S. state of California. The precursor of the flag was first flown during the 1846 Bear Flag Revolt and was also known as the Bear Flag. A predecessor, called the Lone Star Flag, was used in an 183 ...

at the Civic USA-San Jose-De Anza Hotel-5.jpg, The

Hotel De Anza The Hotel De Anza is a historic hotel in San Jose, California. At ten stories, it once was the tallest hotel in the San Jose central business district, prior to the construction of Hilton, Fairmont, and Marriott hotels. Significant for its archi ...

, with the city flag flying at the leftmost flagpole

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:San Jose, California, of Flag

Flag A flag is a piece of fabric (most often rectangular or quadrilateral) with a distinctive design and colours. It is used as a symbol, a signalling device, or for decoration. The term ''flag'' is also used to refer to the graphic design empl ...

Flags of cities in California 1984 establishments in California Flags introduced in 1984