Flag of Portland, Oregon

Flag of the City of Portland

Use	Civil and state flag
Proportion	3:5
Adopted	1969
Design	Nordic Cross design with Blue stripe surrounded by a yellow stripe within a white stripe, on a green background.
Designed by	Douglas Lynch

The city flag of Portland, Oregon, consists of a green field on which is placed a white four-pointed star from which radiate blue stripes, each bordered by L-shaped yellow lines. Narrow white lines separate the blue and yellow elements from each other and from the green background. Officially the flag has a height of 3 feet and a length of 5 feet.

City ordinance 176874, adopted September 4, 2002, sets the design and what it means. Green stands for "the forests and our green City"; yellow for "agriculture and commerce"; blue for "our rivers". Portland is on the Willamette River near its joining with the Columbia River. City Ordinance 186794, adopted September 3, 2014, updated the proportions and the Pantone color specifications: White, PMS 279 (Blue); PMS 349 (Green); and PMS 1235 (Yellow).

The flag was designed in 1969 by a longtime Portland resident, graphic designer R. Douglas Lynch (1913–2009). The version of the flag adopted at that time included, over Lynch's objections, a dark blue canton containing the city seal in yellow and white; in 2002 Lynch and fellow members of the Portland Flag Association persuaded the city council to simplify the design to better reflect his original intent.