Greenwood at wits end over graffiti

We’ve written several times about the steady rise of graffiti in Greenwood, and now the Seattle PI has written a story about the problem.

The hardest hit area is Greenwood Park. Despite the persistent efforts of neighbors and city workers, it’s absolutely blanketed in graffiti.

Just about every surface is covered, including the slides.

And take a look at the bathroom. “In Greenwood, they just keep doing it,” says Dewey Potter, city parks spokeswoman. And graffiti is up 44 percent in parks across the city. “We don’t exactly know what’s going on,” Potter said. As we wrote last week, the Greenwood and Phinney neighborhoods have teamed up with a graffiti task force called “Art Up Greenwood-Phinney.” You can read their blog here, where you can volunteer to join a clean-up crew.

CK

Um, no security cameras?

boardbrown

At least we know who the culprits are.
Looks like someone needs to track down the "g squad" whoever they are. Idiots.

mikeyG

Last week Salt Lake City made graffiti a felony criminal mischief charge, with up to 5 years in prison. (Do more than $5,000 in damage, and you're looking at 15 years.)

Seattle prosecutions tend to net $500 fines and 18 months probation.

An then you wonder why we have a graffiti problem....

Chuck a few of these vermin in jail for 5 years and I bet that will solve the problem quick.

For those that think that's being too hard of "street artists" - consider that most of the spray paint is shoplifted (theft), and damages private property, to the tune of $10 million dollars per year in Seattle.

Yes, throw their asses in jail....

Milo Dakkat

I saw lots of graffiti when I was in Europe. Jeez, I even saw graffiti in Switzerland--of course it was all sprayed in Helvetica there, but that's another story.

Sarah E

pioggia,
I never saw graffiti in Italy, France or Spain. You must have been in some ratty areas.

Mike

Peter, FTW!

Suthii

Sorry to hear about all the trouble up there Greenwood. Down here in Ballard the main complaint is about yuppies and condos ruining Ballard. I guess we have it tough.

Peter

g squad is da bomb! h, i, j and k sqaud watch yo bak!

Susan

I posted extensively about this on the Greenwood blog about this too, including a lot of photos of graffiti throughout the rest of Greenwood.

pioggia

I don't know where you lived SarahE but there is plenty of graffiti in Italy, France & Spain so it's not just us Americans.

I agree however that parents need to be asking these questions & retailers could make it harder to get the paint...

Sarah E

I can't imagine adults doing this, so the question is...Parents, where are your kids at night? Where are they getting the spray paint? The local retailers should restrict access to spray paint. I lived overseas for several years (in 3 different countries); graffiti was never seen. The issue is the lack of 'respect' these kids have for their neighbors and the community.

Suthii

How about border police along 85th through Greenwood? That should keep the trailer trash out.

JM

The Seattle Art Museum's Olympic Sculpture park has to have 24 hour security to deal with this problem and that seems to be the way to go. But who can afford that?