The current flag of

San Jose, California San Jose, officially the City of San José ( ; ), is a cultural, commercial, and political center within Silicon Valley and the San Francisco Bay Area. With a city population of 997,368 and a metropolitan area population of 1.95 million, it is ...

features a triband of gold on top, white in the middle, and blue on the bottom with the city's official seal in the center. It has been the official flag since 1984.

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 that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

, 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.

Seal

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, printing 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 educat ...

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

wheat Wheat is a group of wild and crop domestication, domesticated Poaceae, grasses of the genus ''Triticum'' (). They are Agriculture, cultivated for their cereal grains, which are staple foods around the world. Well-known Taxonomy of wheat, whe ...

sheaf Sheaf may refer to: * Sheaf (agriculture), a bundle of harvested cereal stems * Sheaf (mathematics) In mathematics, a sheaf (: sheaves) is a tool for systematically tracking data (such as sets, abelian groups, rings) attached to the open s ...

and

grapevines ''Vitis'' (grapevine) is a genus of 81 accepted species of vining plants in the flowering plant family Vitaceae. The genus consists of species predominantly from the Northern Hemisphere. It is economically important as the source of grapes, bot ...

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

agricultural Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created f ...

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

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 A legislature (, ) is a deliberative assembly with the legal authority to make laws for a political entity such as a country, nation or city on behalf of t ...

. 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 study of flags. It was founded in 1967 by American vexillologist Whitney Smith, and others. Its membership of 1,100+ comprises flag s ...

survey. 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 subsidia ...

'' and

KPIX-TV KPIX-TV (channel 5), branded on-air as CBS Bay Area, is a television station licensed to San Francisco, California, United States, serving as the CBS network outlet for the San Francisco Bay Area. It is owned and operated by the network's CBS ...

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

Usage

San Jose's official flag policy mandates that the flag be flown at

San Jose City Hall San José City Hall is the seat of the municipal government of San Jose, California. Located in Downtown San Jose, it was designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Richard Meier in a Postmodern style. It consists of an 18-story tower, an ic ...

, the police administration building, San Jose Civic,

San Jose International Airport San José Mineta International Airport —officially Norman Y. Mineta San Jose International Airport—is a city-owned public airport in San Jose, California. Located northwest of Downtown San Jose, the airport serves both the city and the Sa ...

, 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 association football, soccer club based in San Jose, California. The Earthquakes compete in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Western Conference (MLS), Western Conference. Origin ...

' 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 A rotunda () is any roofed building with a circular ground plan, and sometimes covered by a dome. It may also refer to a round room within a building (an example being the one below the dome of the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C.). ...

San Jose -California- (32640878434).jpg, Flag flying alongside the

Flag of the United States The national flag of the United States, often referred to as the American flag or the U.S. flag, consists of thirteen horizontal Bar (heraldry), stripes, Variation of the field, alternating red and white, with a blue rectangle in the Canton ( ...

and the

Flag of California The Bear Flag is the US state flags, official flag of the U.S. state of California. The precursor of the flag was first flown during the 1846 California Republic#Bear Flag Revolt, Bear Flag Revolt and was also known as the Bear Flag. A predec ...

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 archit ...

, with the city flag flying at the leftmost flagpole

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:San Jose, California, of Flag

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

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