Colors:
Yellow signifies that Cook County has long been viewed as a symbol of wealth because it is the 3rd most economic county in the U.S. with a comparable GDP to the United Arab Emirates while being home to the top 2 richest places in Illinois as well as the 5th and 6th richest places. Yellow symbolizes energy, as in the sun because Cook County is home to national photovoltaic technologies like the nation’s largest urban solar plant based in Chicago’s South Side and that the Field Museum in Chicago had the largest solar array when it was installed in 2002. The color yellow can also be used to represent happiness, because in a ranking of the top 10 happiest cities in Illinois, Cook County is home to 2 places that rank #1 and #3 on the list.
Blue signifies that Cook County is full of determination, since its city, Chicago, has universities that flourish in innovation due to their many grants as well as their interdependence on other universities. Also, blue represents liberation because Cook County is not one of the counties that sends more people to prison than other counties in Illinois, while many people here are able to get out of prison due to changes in bail requirements that cut out the largest jail in Chicago’s inmate population by nearly a half. Blue additionally represents alertness because Cook County has many programs designed to respond to any potential crisis, like when it provided many grants to help build programs designed to respond to crimes, drug addiction, mental health, and to the affairs of crime victims and witnesses. The Cook County Department of Public Health has powers and capabilities to respond to public health, like watching over patterns of disease, distributing vaccines and antibiotics, and provides information to the media and public. Finally, when it comes to weather, the Illinois Emergency Management Agency provided a guide to help people prepare for winter weather by providing information about what to do to prevent harm caused by cold weather, and even provides procedures for schools. Blue represents good fortune because Cook County provides social mobility programs designed to help people achieve success by assisting them with housing as well as their other needs, as well as to help them move into safer areas where they can persevere even more without any danger.
Description:
The flag simply depicts a sun rising over Lake Michigan, which is supposed to represent the fact that Cook County geographically borders Lake Michigan to the east, and that Lake Michigan has a huge role in making Cook County the way it is, mostly because of its role in how it turned Chicago into one of the U.S.’s most economic cities. Chicago, with the inspiration of New York’s Erie Canal and the Ohio and Erie Canal, began construction on the Illinois and Michigan Canal, which used the Chicago river to help siphon water to control direction. Because of this, Chicago turned into a bustling center of trade, because in its first decade, the canal carried 5.5 million bushels of wheat, 26 million bushels of corn, 27 million pounds of pork, and 563 million board feet of lumber. Additionally, the sun is shown to have 24 rays of sunshine, which represents Cook County’s 24 cities, while the bottom 6 rays are thicker than the other rays due to its close proximity with the lake, which represents Cook County’s 6 main geographic regions.