Seattle Public Utilities is offering free paint and supplies to anyone who wants to help paint out graffiti in their neighborhood. The Summer Paint Out program runs in July and August.

Whether you are a group or an individual, you can tackle graffiti in your neighborhood. The City of Seattle supports volunteers with FREE paint (white-brown-gray), rollers, brushes, scrapers, and gloves.

Sign up online, or call 206-684-7790 for more information.

Supplies can be picked up on the following Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. (registration required first): July 16, July 30, Aug. 6, Aug. 20.

It’s the question that always spurs heated conversation. Is graffiti vandalism or art? A recent survey showed Seattle residents are almost evenly divided on the issue. Now, there’s a push to start a photo database to track graffiti and amend the city’s municipal code to include stickers.

With the help of the nonprofit Common Language Project and communications students at the University of Washington, we take a closer look at the graffiti issue through the eyes of the people tracking it, cleaning it up, and making it.

Continue reading “Redefining Seattle graffiti laws is a sticky issue”

Graffiti has been a concern for Fremont in the past.  People have woken up to find their cars and homes tagged.  The Bridge Mural under Aurora has been damaged more than once.

We are collaborating with The Seattle Times and its news partners on a graffiti-related piece and we’d like to know your thoughts: Do you think there is a graffiti problem in Fremont?  Where are the trouble spots?  Is this a growing concern?  Has it gotten better or worse?  Are any groups in the neighborhood monitoring or cleaning it up?  Is there an effective way to keep taggers away?  Post your thoughts in the comments below or email tips@fremontuniverse.com.

Vandals tagged several homes and cars with graffiti late Friday night or early-morning Saturday.  Neighbors in the 400 block of N. Bowdoin Pl woke to find their property damaged with what appears to be the same word.

Two cars had graffiti spray painted onto their trunk lids.  The owners were eventually able to remove the paint with solvent. 

One home was marked in two places, on both the front steps and a retaining wall.  Another home had their wood porch tagged.  The incident has since been reported to the city.  (Thanks for the tip and photos, John!)

Just to the west of the Fremont Troll, this abandoned house had attracted just about every tagger in town over the last several months.

And now the eyesore is gone, demolished by the owner a couple weeks ago. At last week’s Troll meeting, neighbors told us they’re happy it’s gone.

The property is currently for sale. We checked with the real estate agent today, and he said a townhouse developer is interested in the land.

Someone sprayed graffiti all over the Fremont Troll over the last few days.

They even climbed up and painted the eye.

So the Fremont Arts Council mobilized today to clean it up.

Since the paint can’t be removed, volunteers applied a bonding agent followed by a fresh later of concrete over the top.

The troll is tagged every few months, but this time it was more severe. The Fremont Arts Council has a simple message for vandals: “Tagging the troll is not cool,” said Barbara Luecke. “But we can help you find another art form.”

If you’d like to help finance the art council’s graffiti clean up events — they also keep Fremont murals in good shape — you can donate on their website.

Fremont Arts Council volunteers touched up the N. 38th St mural today.

The colorful mural under Aurora north of the bridge is often damaged by graffiti. (Photo by SPONeill. See more right here.)

This morning members of the Fremont Arts Council began scrubbing and touching up parts of the mural under the Aurora Bridge on 38th St.

Graffiti, grease and dirt are scattered along the mural under the bridge. Cleaning supplies and paint were donated by Daly’s Paint.

Volunteers will return over the next few days to finish up the job.