Monday, we noted that the police have arrested a man accused of tagging Wallingford and many other neighborhoods with a spraypainted "Zeb". We've always had a bit of short-fuse for tagging, a form of graffiti in which the practitioner spraypaints or marks his name over huge numbers of pieces of private property. The most infuriating aspect of tagging is that city law requires the property owner to bear the cost of the removal of the mark and will fine the owner…
If you've been annoyed by the graffiti that seems to appear regularly around the neighborhood, take some cheer. Twenty-one year old Samuel F. Lehtinen was booked into jail a couple weeks back, accused (and caught paint-handed) of being the vandal spraypainting "Zeb" all of Seattle and Portland. Here's a few images of his handiwork, shot by Jeff over at Bedrooms & More: Have fun spraypainting the inside of your cell.
Wallyreader Jeff told us this morning that there was some police activity at the Wallingford Playfield, around 7:10 a.m. A man with a sleeping bag was in cuffs and there were two police cars and some sort of police van. At this point, we’re speculating it may have something to do with a bank robbery in the U District yesterday. According to the the Wallingford Neighborhood Office’s e-news, a bank robbery had taken place at Key Bank on 45th in the…
Our friends up the street by NE 44th St and 4th Ave NE (just a block off I-5) reported a disturbing burglarly the other day. They were getting ready to leave in the morning and had put a bag into their car and returned into the house to get the kids. As they were gathering their things, they looked out the window as two men on motorcycles pulled up. One hopped off his bike, smashed their car window with a tire…
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…
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…
Here are some highlights of last week's haps beyond Wallingford: I can’t help but share two interesting pieces of information from Fremont Universe: First, the building which houses the Dubliner Restaurant and Pub has sold for an impressive $4.05 million. While there is no official word as to the fate of the Irish pub, it was rumored that the apartments above might be converted into a hotel. The second piece of news is a bit more bizarre: On Saturday morning, a man…