Graffiti Removal

FCA has been attuned to watching for and reporting graffiti around the community. Guidance from the City of Seattle is to report all graffiti to the Find It/Fix It app. The system was set up so that the City would take care of graffiti on City property and notify property owners to clear the graffiti from their property. Additionally, the Seattle Police Department would make sure that the graffiti was not a gang related message. The Find It/Fix It app worked reasonably well but it sometimes took several weeks before the graffiti was removed.

At the time of the city wide protests in 2020 particularly downtown the City was strapped for resources to address other issues around the City. During that period of the protests the Fauntleroy Business area was targeted by graffiti. Specifically the sidewalks along SW Wildwood Ave both east and west of 45th Ave SW up to the YMCA and Fauntleroy Church and also in front of a number of the businesses were spray painted. When the FCA contacted the police and the City we were told that it would be some time before the City would be able to address the issue. Fauntleroy Community members decided to address the issue themselves before it got worse. Several members spent two half days physically removing the graffiti. About a week later the graffiti reappeared and was even more promptly removed by FCA members. This time the graffiti did not reappear.

In discussions with members of the Seattle Police Department they indicated that the best solution to a graffiti issue is to quickly remove the graffiti as the vandal’s objective is to have their message read by a large number of people and if the graffiti is removed quickly that goal is not attained. Thus the vandals typically go to other areas of the City where their messages will survive and be read by many.

The FCA remains focused on identifying and seeing that any graffiti is quickly removed.