PAUL BRINKLEY-ROGERS

 All hail the Banana Republic, better known -- at least for the moment -- as the city of Miami.

 The notion that Miami city government is a bush-league enterprise is anathema to its political leaders, especially Mayor Joe Carollo. But some citizens are finding comic relief in a new flag on the streets showing a redesigned city seal superimposed on a field of bananas.

 The Banana Republic may be only a state of mind. But the flag -- seen at demonstrations over the last two weekends at which many American flags were waved and much mockery was made of Carollo -- has suddenly become a hot item.

 Barbara Dabney, the flag's designer, says the demand for what started as a joke may reflect sentiment in people weary of politics at city hall in the wake of the Elian Gonzalez affair.

 The public mood, she said, has been reflected in her sales.

 Her Freedom Flag and Banner plant at 13870 W. Dixie Hwy. in North Miami worked overtime in the week after federal agents raided the Little Havana home where Elian lived. Its 12 workers printed more than 10,000 Cuban flags, ranging in size from four by six inches to a 20-by-30-foot giant big enough to cover its purchaser's 18-wheeler.

 But then, Dabney said, ''It was like someone turned off the faucet for Cuba's flag,'' when demand for it peaked, ''and turned on the faucet for the U.S. flag'' when counter-demonstrations started.

 ''Sometimes I think we are a barometer for whatever happens in this city.''

 MEETING DEMAND

 Dabney said she was shaking off another 12-hour day of meeting demand for Cuban flags when Coconut Grove carpenter Ron Snizek, 46, walked in on April 26 and declared he was appalled at Carollo's ''antics'' and wished there were a flag for the banana republic that some said Miami had become.

 She said she made a large flag emblazoned with the words ''Banana Republic'' and the city's official seal. Snizek took it with him the next day to an anti-Carollo protest in Coconut Grove to fly from a pole tied to his pickup's tailgate. He came back ''absolutely thrilled'' to tell her that he needed many more because people liked it.

 SPORTS FANS

 Dabney then made up an initial batch of 50 in the size sports fans like to fly from their car windows. Legal concerns over using the city's seal, however, prompted her to redesign a new seal that fixes the date of the founding of the Banana Republic in the year 2000 for the three subsequent runs of 250 each.

 There has been no advertising. No one is marketing the flag.

 But on several occasions, she said, prominent politicians -- whom she declined to name -- have sat outside her business in their cars while they sent an aide inside to hand over $15 for one of the flags. A five-foot by eight-foot version available for $75 is displayed in the storefront.

 CUSTOMERS' REQUESTS

 Scott Peterson who runs the H.A. Peterson & Sons flagpole company at 13012 SW 85th Ave. south of Kendall said he bought 40 Banana Republic flags from Dabney to sell at his store because customers wanted it.

 ''We are not trying to be divisive,'' he said. ''There's enough division in this community. This flag is intended to be humorous.''

 He said a couple of customers told him they thought the idea of the Banana Republic was racist. But Peterson said it is not, and that it mostly causes people to laugh.

 He said he thinks Miami needs its new colors.

 Given the city's state of mind, he said, it does not need to see the scattering of Confederate flags that have turned up at some anti-Carollo protests. He said he has refused to sell examples of that flag in the last two weeks. His 19-year-old son asked a man who said he wanted to buy a Nazi flag to leave the store.

 STRANGE TIMES

 ''Times like these bring out a lot of strange people,'' Peterson said.

 Dabney said that when people make U-turns in the middle of West Dixie Highway because they see the flag in her window she knows her creation has touched a nerve.

 ''Someone wanted me to make up a banana flag with Joe Carollo's face on it,'' she said, speaking of a ''Republica de Miami'' design showing Carollo wearing a crown and flanked by palm trees bearing bunches of bananas. Some of the mayor's critics in Coconut Grove have taped printouts of the design to their vehicles.

 ''I said, 'No,' because I thought that was too blatant,'' she said.

 Dabney said that when she moved to Miami from New York 12 years ago she told friends ''I always dreamed of living in a foreign country.''

 They were telling her then that Miami was a Banana Republic. ''But I never took offense to it,'' she said. ''And now it is true.''

                     Copyright 2000 Miami Herald