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Asheville, North Carolina (U.S.)

Buncombe County

image by António Martins-Tuválkin, 5 December 2009

Description of the flag
Local flag competition

See also:

Description of the flag

The City of Asheville is the largest city in Western North Carolina and the county seat of Buncombe County. The city is located in the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains and is known for its natural beauty."
http://www.ashevillenc.gov - City of Asheville official website

Wikipedia shows a flag for the City of Asheville, vertically divided purple-white-purple (1:2:1) with in the middle of the white stripe a purple building and the name of the city. The caption says: "The is the city of Asheville, North Carolina's Flag. The Crew of USS Asheville use this as their Battle Flag. [...] I was unable to find this image anywhere on the internet."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:City_of_Asheville_North_Carolina_Flag.jpg
Ivan Sache, 24 November 2007

A photo of the City Council shown at http://www.stopasheville.com/images/City%20Council.jpg [in context at http://www.stopasheville.com/citycouncil.htm] confirms that the official flag is still in current use. Incidentally it also seems to show that the purple of the flag is much more reddish than the shade used in the Wikipedia graphic.
Ned Smith, 24 November 2007

The relative widths of the stripes seem to be 9+22+9 and the ratio about 3:5 — the overall specs hence are 24:(9+22+9).
António Martins-Tuválkin, 5 December 2009

Local flag competition

image by António Martins-Tuválkin, 4 December 2009

A vote for the unofficial Asheville flag was organized online by Asheville Pizza and Brewing and WWNC Radio. More than 27,000 online were cast in the contest to determine six finalists, with another 2,000 or so choosing the winner. The six finalists' proposals can be seen on the multimedia gallery attached to the article by Tony Kiss, "Asheville Citizen-Times", 19 November 2007:
http://www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071119/NEWS01/71118013/1250

As announced by "Asheville Citizen-Times", 22 November 2007, the winner is Jack Moon, of Fairview, whose design is "featuring a view of both the city’s skyline and mountains".
http://www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200771121172
Ivan Sache, 24 November 2007

I think the key word is "unofficial"; the new design was the winner of a contest held by a pub and a radio station; I'm not sure I'd treat it as anything more than an advertising poster (which it resembles) for the time being.
Albert S. Kirsch, 24 November 2007

Rangel plans to put the flag into production, and offer it for sale. He dreamed up the idea in hopes that area residents would raise the flag at out-of-town festivals and concerts to promote the city."
Rangel is the co-owner of the pizzeria co-organizing the contest.
Ivan Sache, 24 November 2007

The flag shows a mountain slope and landscape view in stylized triangle and diamond shapes, complete with white-outline city contour and the name "asheville" in black smoke trail script letters and a tree (?) outline.
António Martins-Tuválkin, 4 December 2009