Tag Archives: graffiti

‘Let the people have rat’ — Work party restores Cal Anderson Park mural

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A symbol of Capitol HIll’s “Hot Rat Summer” has been restored — partially — on the historic Cal Anderson Gatehouse.

Dedicated neighbors, artists, and two members of the Seattle City Council gathered on the hottest day of the year so far to restore the surprisingly radiant rat mosaic after the city painted over it in what some are calling a bureaucratic blunder and others see as an act of erasure.

“It’s such a beautiful mural that’s taken so many hours,” said Bug, a Vegas transplant new to the city, who showed up solo to help uncover the piece. “Just to cover it up, like, out of spite? It didn’t make sense to me. Especially in a city that’s so filled with art.”

Bug, who said they first saw the mural on Instagram and later learned it had been painted over through Reddit, wasn’t the only one moved to act. Other dedicated mural appreciators were there. “I just came and did it on my own,” Bug said. “This is the second time I showed up to uncover it.”

The mosaic mural was painted on the side of the landmarked Seattle Public Utilities Gatehouse building above Cal Anderson’s reflecting pool. It has became a source of neighborhood pride in the spunky expression of a neighborhood dedicated to having a good time despite any hard times and challenges. That made it all the more surprising when city crews painted over it.

Seattle City Councilmembers Joy Hollingsworth and Alexis Mercedes Rinck joined residents Wednesday to help gently scrub the white paint off the rat. Continue reading →

Seattle doubles down with threat of $1K fines for ‘prolific taggers’ — Meanwhile, ‘Hot Rat Summer’ mosaic to be restored

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(Image: CHS)

Seattle is doubling down on illegal graffiti, adding possible $1,000 fines for tagging in the city.

The Seattle City Council voted 7-1 Tuesday to approve legislation allowing the Seattle City Attorney to bring “civil actions against prolific taggers,” “with the potential to receive some restitution and for graffiti-related property destruction.” Convicted taggers would also remain subject to criminal penalties. Only citywide councilmember Alexis Mercedes Rinck voted against the bill.

“Council’s vote today sends a clear message: Seattle’s tolerance for illegal graffiti has expired. Stop vandalizing our city or we will hold you accountable,” City Attorney Ann Davison said in a statement on the approval. “There are many prolific illegal taggers and once the ordinance becomes effective, I will be filing lawsuits. Since the fines are imposed for each violation, it should serve as a big wake-up call to those who deface Seattle.” Continue reading →

Proposal would allow Seattle to pursue $1K fine ‘per illegal graffiti violation’

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Seattle Police aren’t busting taggers. The City Attorney is asking for a new tool to crack down on the likes of WESH and DOTCOM without cops including a $1,000 fine “per illegal graffiti violation.”

The Seattle City Council’s public safety committee is taking up the debate Tuesday morning on the proposed legislation from City Attorney Ann Davison and committee chair Bob Kettle that would allow Davison’s office to pursue civil penalties against vandals, taggers, and graffiti artists.

“Many illegal graffiti taggers are known to police and promote themselves on social media but it can be difficult to hold them accountable through the criminal justice system,” the City Attorney’s office presentation on the proposed legislation reads. “The Illegal Graffiti Restitution legislation would provide the City Attorney with new authority to bring civil actions against the most prolific illegal graffiti taggers in circumstances where criminal charges might not be possible.” Continue reading →

City says it had to clean up less trash in 2024 thanks to volunteers and enforcement

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Seattle Public Utilities is out with its 2024 “Clean City” report as it says citizens are volunteering more effort than ever to community clean-ups while its totals for debris collected from the public right of way actually dropped during the year.

“I’m proud we’re doing this work. Keeping Seattle neighborhoods cleaner helps residents thrive,” SPU General Manager and CEO Andrew Lee said in the announcement. “We welcome more residents and community organizations to join us in supporting Seattle’s diverse communities.”

SPU says its crews removed 1,765,421 pounds of debris from 1,550 blocks across the city’s right-of-way in 2024, down 7% from 2023 despite continued increased use of the Find It, Fix It “Service Request Mobile App.”

SPU credits “community engagement and education, enforcement efforts, and collaboration with other City of Seattle departments” for the reduction.

The Find It, Fix It app is focused on issues around cleanliness and rubbish but stats from the show that a bulk of the system’s calls are related to homelessness even though the app’s categories don’t show choices like “encampment” or “tents.” Instead, the calls are frequently reported under general inquiries, or “illegal dumping,” the most frequently used category in Find It, Fix It complaints. UPDATE: In a 2022 update, the app began accepting requests for an “Unauthorized Encampment.” Users are asked to use the category to “Report an unauthorized encampment that includes tents or structures assembled for habitation.” Continue reading →

GRIDE, WESH, and DOTCOM — Seattle officials announce ’34 felony criminal cases against 17 defendants’ in tagging crackdown

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From Make It Rain, a Seattle Graffiti Documentary cited in the investigation

The King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office is touting the filing of “34 felony criminal cases against 17 defendants” for tagging calling the crime “acts of vandalism that have causes thousands of dollars in damages across King County.”

Officials said this week the charges come after “a months-long effort” from the Seattle City Attorney’s Office, Seattle Police, the King County Sheriff’s Office and the Washington State Patrol to crack down on taggers and the MSP and BTM graffiti crews that work up and down the I-5 corridor. Police say the taggers behind marks including GRIDE, WESH, and DOTCOM are part of the investigation. Continue reading →

Hopes for cleaning up filthy Capitol Hill Station? Sound Transit’s new graffiti-friendly art program and a pressure washing contract

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This bird is not a fan of pressure washing

Workers installing one of the new art panels (Image: Sound Transit)

Sound Transit is hoping a new initiative will help address graffiti at Capitol Hill Station.

Meanwhile, a new $4.7 million contract will hopefully help clean up the filthy facility.

Sound Transit says a new art installation at the west entrance to Capitol Hill Station across Broadway is hoped to be a solution rolled out to its facilities that are “highly targeted by graffiti.”

New art panels installed at the station entrance are part of a pilot project organized by graffiti artist Danny Melbihess to showcase the artform and hopefully cut down on clean-up costs by discouraging tagging elsewhere in the station. “It’s a different approach than hammering down or painting over,” a Sound Transit official said. “Graffiti has always been a thing. We can’t get rid of it entirely, but we can channel it.”

Under the program, Sound Transit says Melbihess “curated a group of graffiti writers” to produce art for the project. Two 6×4 Dibond panels are painted offsite and installed at the west entrance where they will be displayed for a couple months before begin rotated out for new work.

The first in the series features work by artist Aerub.

Sound Transit says it “hopes to create a long-standing partnership and some goodwill with graffiti writers” with the new pilot program. Continue reading →

Seattle free to try to crack down on graffiti after appeal in East Precinct chalk protest case

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Seattle’s lawless days as a graffiti free for all are over after a federal appeals court ruling in a Capitol Hill free speech case.

The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has overturned a 2023 ruling that the city’s vandalism laws were unconstitutional in a case over arrests made in 2021 over chalk and charcoal messages scrawled outside Capitol Hill’s East Precinct.

The messages are a frequent and continuing protest method near the 12th and Pine facility and outside Seattle Police Department facilities across the city.

The previous ruling forced the city to back off prosecution for graffiti or tagging while City Attorney Ann Davison’s office appealed the case. Continue reading →

Decision in East Precinct chalk protest case halts Seattle’s war on graffiti

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A free speech case stemming from protests outside the East Precinct on Capitol Hill has temporarily halted Seattle’s war on graffiti.

The injunction from a federal court judge hearing the case of four people busted for writing messages outside the 12th and Pine police facility using charcoal and chalk says the city’s ordinance against property destruction includes elements that result in the “criminalization of free speech.” Continue reading →

Seattle launches Storefront Repair Fund to battle busted glass — UPDATE

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Scratched windows, tagged walls, busted glass — some say it is the cost of doing business on Capitol Hill and across Seattle. Now, the city is launching a $2 million Seattle Storefront Repair Fund powered by federal dollars to help small business owners deal with vandalism and damage.

Details of the new grant program were being announced Tuesday by Mayor Bruce Harrell and Councilmember Sara Nelson in the University District. The program will leverage nearly $2 million dollars of federal funding “to repair or reimburse damage to small business storefronts,” a City Hall announcement reads.

UPDATE: The Harrell administration tells CHS the new fund will cover glass and windows but not graffiti — “this fund does not cover costs for graffiti removal, however with existing funding and partnerships OED continues to support businesses who need assistance with graffiti removal.”
Continue reading →

We know where the body portraits in Cal Anderson came from but have no clue about these new faces across Capitol Hill — UPDATE

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Thanks to @SarahEMyhre and other CHS readers for asking about the faces

(Image: Seattle Office of Arts and Culture)

A new temporary art installation has added colorful portraits to Cal Anderson Park.

Meanwhile, a prolific new(?) street artist has drawn attention with stylized faces popping up around Capitol Hill.

The Seattle Office of Arts and Culture says artist Jean Bradbury’s The People Make This Park will be on display around Cal Anderson through September. The “colorful, larger-than-life” portraits feature park-goers and include excerpts from interviews about the subject’s relation to the park. The project “speaks to the theme of how important land is to people,” the city arts office says.

Cal Anderson isn’t the only Capitol Hill park with temporary art. CHS reported here on the project that added 14 stone “benches” in Volunteer Park through next summer.

Meanwhile, a new Capitol HIll character is appearing on utility boxes and power poles, dining patios and dumpsters around the neighborhood as one of the more prolific street art efforts in recent memory is decorating mundane streetside items with graffiti featuring cartoon-worthy faces complete with googly eyes and wide-open mouths showing off zig-zagging tongues and jagged teeth. Continue reading →