Flags to Fly Over University Avenue this 4th of July

"Displaying the grand old flag on national holidays is something that hasn’t happened in downtown Palo Alto most likely since the last century—if ever and we thought it was about time we show our patriotism," said Russ Cohen, executive director of the Palo Alto Downtown Business and Professional Association. "It truly took a village to make this project happen."

To make Palo Alto's patriotism visible to all took a bit of planning actually about two years. In particular Cohen needed to partner with an organization with funds and time.

According to Cohen, the organization surveyed other cities to see how they displayed the flags. Most of what they found didn't fit University Avenue.

"For one thing we don’t have parking meters and our lamp posts are already loaded with signs and twinkle light connections so attaching a bracket was a concern of Palo Alto’s public works division," said Cohen. 

Suggestions from the city led the PADBPA to consider planter bulbouts as part of an irrigation upgrade project. Then when the word got out, the Rotary Club of Palo Alto and the University Rotary Club stepped up to help with funding and installation of the flags, according to Cohen.

"When Russ approached us with the idea, we jumped at it," said Richard Schulerman of the Univesity Rotary Club.

The lampost banners feature a variety of messages that help brand downtown by differentating it from any other. 

"This is a great example of public private partnerships at play in downtown," Cohen said. "With the downtown association, the rotary and the city all working together to make it happen. The flag program will be an exciting new visual additon to downtown and so will our new seasonal lampost banners."

Local businesses look forward to the show of patriotism.

"What better way to promote our hotel than to have our name associated with a place, or in this case, another brand that is truly distinct," Barbara Gross, general manager of the Garden Court Hotel, said.