The flag represents, as a whole, Chicago, Cook County Symbols, and Lake Michigan. More specifically, the blue rectangle on the left side represents Lake Michigan. The 5 red stars surrounding the yellow circle represent the 5 suburban districts of Cook County, the yellow circle represents the county flower, the red star in the yellow circle represents Chicago, the green rectangle represents the forest preserve, and the blue stripes divide the green rectangle into 6 regions to represent the 6 regions of Cook County