A recent run of graffiti on Magnolia raises hackles of business owners
Mike Smith from the Leroux clothing store in Magnolia Village thinks there's been an upswing lately in the amount of graffiti showing up on neighborhood businesses. "My sense is it's a small group of kids (or adults) doing it," he said.
Police who deal with them say that graffiti taggers are typically middle- to upper-class individuals with low self-esteem, but whoever is vandalizing Village businesses lately, seems to be able to cover a lot of ground in a hurry, Smith said. And it doesn't seem to matter what time of year it is.
KeyBank was hit by taggers about six months ago, and the side of Art VanderWel's office building next to Leroux's was hit after the taggers got on Leroux's roof, Smith said.
Bert Lundh's Porcelain gallery has also been targeted. "I would say his building has gotten hit pretty consistently," Smith added. The local graffiti vandals are especially fond of the empty storefronts on West 32nd Street, where past tags have been painted over, only to be replaced with fresh ones.
"They just want to annoy people. It's like marking your territory, like little dogs."
- Christa Moore of Leroux's clothing store
Especially annoying, business windows on West McGraw - including Leroux's - were tagged with acid around three years ago, he said. "It was thousands of dollars," Smith said of the cost to replace the windows. Insurance covered the loss, he added.
Some of the graffiti in Magnolia are just scrawls, while some are artistic, Smith said, but the two styles share a common trait. "It's a lot of hassle and a lot of expense," he groused. Still, Smith admits he thought he had the right to do some bad stuff when he was a teenager. "It's a badge of honor sometimes."
Leroux sales clerk Christa Moore takes a different view of the taggers. "They just want to annoy people," she said. "It's like marking your territory, like little dogs."
"We're pretty good about getting it painted out ... which really helps," Smith said of the tags.
Not everyone is so dedicated. "Sometimes there are folks who do not do anything about it," Smith added. In some cases, he said, it's renters who figure the property owner should be responsible for the cleanup.
Smith said his wife, Alex Smith, did a good job of reaching out to businesses in Magnolia that were ignoring the problem when she was president of the Magnolia Chamber of Commerce last year.
And not only was convincing the business owners to take action a good idea, it's the law. No one in the graffiti-removal division of Seattle Public Utilities responded to numerous calls and requests for comment, but SPU's Web site indicates that tagged private property can be declared a graffiti nuisance.
That, in turn, will trigger a notice informing the property owner that they have 10 days to remove the graffiti. If nothing is done after 10 days, the property owner is served with a notice of civil violation, along with instructions to appear before a city hearing examiner.
If the property owner still balks, he or she could face penalties of up to $100 a day with a maximum penalty of $5,000 until the graffiti are removed, according to the SPU Web site.
People can call the city's Graffiti Report Line (206-684-7587) to report graffiti on public property, and they should call the police non-emergency number (206-625-5011) to report graffiti on their own property, according to the Web site. Private property owners are expected to remove or paint over graffiti immediately after police take a report.
[[In-content Ad]]