Followup: City councilmembers request graffiti/litter audit

Followup to our story late Wednesday night about three graffiti-vandalism arrests in West Seattle and our request for your thoughts on this particular category of crime: We’ve learned that West Seattle-residing City Councilmember Tom Rasmussen and his colleague Councilmember Tim Burgess – respective chairs of the Transportation and Public Safety (etc.) Committees – have asked for an audit of how the city handles graffiti and litter, which they describe as “street disorder.” Specifically, they asked the City Auditor earlier this month to review 7 points, including the city’s graffiti and litter laws, the rate of arrest/prosecution of offenders, intradepartmental coordination of city cleanup efforts in both areas, and “innovative efforts other cities have implemented that Seattle might replicate.” Rasmussen and Burgess asked auditor David Jones to get this done by June 1. We received their letter to the auditor from Rasmussen’s office after they saw our Wednesday night story; read the entire 2-page document here.

3 Replies to "Followup: City councilmembers request graffiti/litter audit"

  • CandrewB February 19, 2010 (12:58 pm)

    Gotta say I like those two on the Council…

  • Bob Tuschhoff March 2, 2010 (12:11 pm)

    As a new resident of West Seattle, I would like to volunteer to help in keeping it clean of litter and graffiti. I have a real passion for this but I don’t know who to contact to get involved. I agree that it would be great to learn from other cities on how they control this problem. I live near the Alaska Junction and I try to pick up the litter whenever I am walking in that area…but there is a lot of it. I’d also like to clean up the litter on the road coming up from the bridge (where the statues are)…but the bushes are so close to the road that I don’t think it’s safe to pick up the litter that is there. It would be nice to have the bushes cut back so that it could be accessible. If anyone knows who I can contact to get involved, please let me know. Thanks.

    • WSB March 2, 2010 (1:11 pm)

      Bob – the best folks to contact for the Junction area would be the Junction Neighborhood Organization. Check out http://www.wsjuno.com – they have Adopt-A-Street cleanups. As for the Walking on Logs area along the bridge, the Fairmount Community Association holds cleanups there from time to time. They did some cutting last year in a herculean effort involving lots of volunteers, donated effort, etc. When they organize another one, it’ll be publicized here for sure – Tracy

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