A Scottsdale teen's bold email to city officials spurred a challenge to redesign its flag.
"When you look at it from afar, it kind of just looks like a white sheet with a blue circle in the middle," said Desert Mountain High School sophomore Connor Heron.
Heron, who enjoys researching and designing flags, said Scottsdale's current design -- consisting only of its seal -- is "honestly pitiful" and "horribly uncreative and unrepresentative of our city," as he wrote in his email to Mayor Jim Lane and city council members.
Lane told ABC15 while Heron was "a little bit harsher" than he would've expected, "you could point to it and say, you know what, he's made some realistic observations about it and maybe it's time" for a new design.
Since October, Scottsdale has received more than 200 flag design entries. According to the North American Vexillological Association, a group that tracks and studies flags, designs should be simple and meaningful, use a few basic colors and contain no words or seals.
Entries for Scottsdale's competition can be submitted on the city website through December 31st. Members of the city's Neighborhood Advisory Commission will select final designs to present to city council for consideration.
