FOLLOWUP: Vandalized mural’s future in question

| Crime | West Seattle history | West Seattle news

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(WSB photo, taken this morning; remaining top half of vandal’s marking has been blurred – bottom half was painted over)

12 days after we first reported on this vandalized mural in The Junction, its future remains unsettled. Paint has been used to cover the lower half of the big black-paint markings with which it was defaced – the part that was not on the mural itself. But while West Seattle Junction Association director Susan Melrose was hopeful at first that a graffiti-paintout firm would be able to handle the rest, that turned out not to be the case. We asked her about it at today’s Junction Historical Survey event; she tells WSB she has called in a muralist to evaluate it. After taking a first look this past weekend, she says, the muralist concurred that it’s major damage without an easy solution – the mural already was too faded, and the vandal’s paint just soaked right in. They’re still talking to see what can be done, but in case you’re wondering why the tag is still partly visible – that’s why.

BACKSTORY: The mural is “The First Duwamish Bridge” by Robert Dafford, and is on the north side of 4740 44th SW, facing The Junction’s southernmost 3-free-hours parking lot. It dates back a quarter-century now, along with nine others noted here.

Gina March 2, 2016 (1:53 pm)

Looks like the same tag as on the recently uncovered advertising sign where the knitting store/comic store/Prudential/Cayce&Gain/Hi Hat building was just torn down.

T Rex March 2, 2016 (2:30 pm)

I’d like to “tag” the little SOB who did this.

John March 2, 2016 (2:37 pm)

I tell you….. Bring in a death penalty and all this will stop real quick.

Casey March 2, 2016 (2:40 pm)

Repaint the whole thing?

captainDave March 2, 2016 (2:54 pm)

The more that Seattle enables and embraces the drug culture, the more destructive gang activity will result. It is time to start thinking about returning to the sensible principals that are the foundation of a civil society. Good people now have less freedom to run businesses, while deviants avoid the rule of law. We need to enforce drug laws and get rid of barriers that keep kids from being employed. Most everyone knows that idle minds create mischief.

B March 2, 2016 (3:22 pm)

Uh, what? It’s drugs fault that someone tagged a building? And how is there less freedom to run a business now? It’s actually the other way around – you have the freedom to sell marijuana! And never forget, the #1 drug is still alcohol.

This is bad parenting and/or bad kids. There’s plenty of after school programs for these kids, and there’s plenty of McDonalds hiring if they’re not kids.

If someone could setup a string operation to catch these people, it would go a long way – a few arrests, force them to do community service cleaning up the other tagged messes, and maybe it would stop.
- Rick March 2, 2016 (5:10 pm)
  
  B- How a rope operation instead of a string operation? I know, (sp) but it’s good to vent.
- charles March 3, 2016 (12:10 am)
  
  Captaindave is right, There is not a single day that some junkie is walking around the hood either robbing, prowling or tagging. The Problem is that we don´t see the huge problem heroin has become in our community, forget weed, or shrooms… I am talking the walking dead roaming around for a hit.
John Pitt March 3, 2016 (8:08 am)

“The more that Seattle enables and embraces the drug culture, the more destructive gang activity will result.”

this is a completely ridiculous statement. we legalized marijuana in seattle in 2001. Have things gone south since then? or only since the 1950s ended? C’mon now.

you want to kill the gangs? you kill drug criminality and treat it like a medical issue for the hard drugs and suddenly people can get what they need to get over their additions with help, and the gangs are, surprise, out of the drug business.

now, you know why they won’t do this?

because these people are still deseparate people with no upward mobility because of our broken ruinous and evil stratified system that we never overthrew from the gilded age, and that is perpetuated by statements like this — drugs bad! no, crime is bad and social inequality is bad and Seattle and WEST Seattle have as much of that problem as anywhere. seattle’s area is one of the most socially and financially unequal places in the nation and it’s getting worse. and statements like this just fuel and enable it. put down the Reaganomics. The old fool is dead and the world better for his long-ago putrescent demise.

meanwhile, we don’t legalize drugs because these desperate people in gangs will still need money… and instead of feeding on each other they would feed on everyone else. catch-22’s all around.

Also: it’s time for a new mural! Maybe something child or youth focused like the neato Delridge one please. Someone tell Susan Meldrose we should do that ASAP. And let a new group of kids redo it annually and then hang prints of the previous ones all over the junction. That sounds like a winning plan if I do say so myself.

SeattleGrrl March 2, 2016 (3:26 pm)

Oh no! I’m so afraid we’re going to lose the rest of these historic murals. :-( I know the last information about repairing the murals seemed to have a really outrageous cost. Has anyone attempted to set up any kind of fundraising event to salvage and save the murals? I would certainly volunteer and contribute to such an effort. We’ve already lost so much of West Seattle’s history.

Kim March 2, 2016 (3:49 pm)

I wonder if there’s any sort of protective coating that could be applied to all the murals around town, so that if they were tagged, it could be cleaned without damaging the underlying painting? If not, someone should invent that :)

Shawn March 2, 2016 (4:42 pm)

What kind of piece of garbage even does this?

NW March 2, 2016 (7:02 pm)

I foresee less parking and more devolpement od the parking lots of the junction businesses it’s too costly of real estate to keep it as is.

NW March 2, 2016 (7:03 pm)

I foresee less parking and more devolpement apartments or condos of the parking lots of the junction businesses it’s too costly of real estate to keep it as is.

cj March 3, 2016 (2:55 am)

Very sad. :(

Cid March 3, 2016 (8:07 am)

The person who tagged this artwork is an insignificant insecure loser who is screaming for attention. Vandalism is such a cowardly act. That said, I think it’s also a crime that these lovely murals have been left to fade and never got the attention and care they deserved over the years. Isn’t the mural on the Post Office is the only one that’s been retouched?

WS March 3, 2016 (9:04 am)

Has there been a property owner in WS who has invited graffiti artists to paint a mural/art of their own? It’s worked other places as a way to encourage taggers to receive positive recognition as artists instead of negative attention as criminals. Not sure if it’s a right fit for this area; just curious if anyone’s tried.

Tom March 3, 2016 (9:08 am)

This has always been my favorite of the murals and I would love to see it repainted in its entirety. Many people have no idea how far back our connection via rail goes with the rest of the city and even further down the peninsula to Endolyne Joe’s. This is a significant and important cultural touchstone for West Seattleites, old and new.

I’d happily throw some $ at the renovation.

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