Does anyone know why the flag is almost always at half-staff, why the POW flag is with it (it kinda looks like the ISIS flag—are we missing something?), and who makes these decisions? —E.

According to members of Friends of Duane Park, the flag is required by the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation, which controls all decisions related to it. Apparently, the flag is not really a priority, which is why it’s occasionally at half-staff longer than it might normally be. There are several ways to contact the Parks Department, if you want to request that the flag be raised.

As for the POW flag, here’s an excerpt from a 2012 New York Times article about it:

A 2003 municipal law requires that all city parks display the P.O.W./M.I.A. flag in addition to the American flag. [We] forwarded your question to Councilman James S. Oddo of Staten Island, who sponsored the 2003 bill. Mr. Oddo expressed surprise at the question. “Does honoring the memory of Americans lost in battle ever get stale?” he asked, adding that no one had ever contacted him about removing the flags. “The only folks who have reached out to me did so because they want to see the flags added to public schools,” he said. “There is legislation in the City Council that would mandate such.”

P.S. “Half-mast is flying a flag below the summit of the mast on a ship. The term ‘half-staff’ is used when referring to a flag flying below the summit on a pole.” —Wikipedia

Got a question? Email it to tribecacitizen@gmail.com or call/text 917-209-6473.

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