Graffiti

Sign Defaced!

Attention, City of Seattle, Department of Tearing Down Defaced Signs! A sign, in Wallingford, has been defaced. Observe this photographic evidence, snapped covertly by cameraphone and smuggled out of the neighborhood onto the Internets by means of telecommunication waves: This sign was meant to protect people, and now it has become whimsical! It belongs to the city, but now a rogue artist has unlawfully altered it! Quick, rush your crack team of sign dismantlers to the intersection in Wallingford on which…

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Graffiti: The Last Word

Thanks to the many people who left comments on our post Wallyhood Endorses Vandalism this past Saturday. Hearing your points of view helped us clarify our own thinking. Jonah, this constitutes our "official response" (and the last we'll post on this for some time, we promise): We stand by our original position that while "tagging"-type graffiti is nasty and should be a punished crime, the artfully altered signs by Bagley and 39th were not nasty and should have been left for…

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Wallyhood Endorses Vandalism?

Folks, we need your help. Some time ago, we left some strong words over at the SeattleCrime blog expressing an opinion that we think most of our readers share: graffiti vandalism sucks. Fast forward to earlier this week, when Patrick wrote a story for Wallyhood expressing appreciation for a bit of whimsical art here in Wallingford: Wallingford's Best Traffic Circle. The problem is, that artfully decorated traffic sign belonged to the city, and the anonymous artist who did the decorating didn't…

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Graffiti Survey

Graffiti seems to be a guaranteed comment generator on local blogs: is it a blight on our community or free expression of rogue artists? What's the difference between a "graffiti artist" and a "tagger"? Well, if you want to voice your opinion, you're welcome to leave it here in the comments field, or, better still, fill out this survey from the City of Seattle Office of City Auditor on the city's response to graffiti. Just don't tag my garbage can. Again.…

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Graffiti Busted

The folks over at Not a Number dropped the dime on a graffiti vandal last night. From their blog: While sitting in Wallingford Pizza House about 10:30PM last night, we noticed a stealthy figure climbing on the roof across the street. The figure had a can of spray paint and proceeded to graffitti the wall on the roof above Starbucks. We called 911 as we watched to report graffitti in progress. The figure climbed back off the roof walked away. About…

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