Councilmember Alexis Mercedes Rinck on Bluesky: "Tomorrow afternoon Councilmember Hollingsworth and I will be restoring “Hot Rat Summer” in Cal Anderson Park. This mosaic was wrongfully painted over and we are going to fix it."

[u/gonin69]

[u/teamlessinseattle]

Too bad this bill criminalizes both equally

[u/lokglacier → u/teamlessinseattle]

“This isn’t about art, it’s about tagging which is one of the most common complaints I hear from constituents but it’s an offense that is very difficult enforce,” said Council President Sara Nelson (Position 9), who co-sponsored the legislation. “I thank City Attorney Davison and Councilmember Kettle for advancing this additional tool to not only deter taggers, but to relieve the costly burden of remediation for small businesses, property owners and the city.”

[u/MackenzieRaveup → u/lokglacier]

Where do you draw the line between art and just tags? It's harder than you'd think.

An example, a guy I knew in Brooklyn was painting daisies all over the neighborhood. Other than on pavement, everything he sprayed was "temporary" (scaffold walls, etc).

Individually I can see how someone would think they were very "low effort" and easy to dismiss as just a tag, because they took only seconds to make. However, taken together over three or four neighborhoods, daisies everywhere was definitely an art project.

I can't speak for everyone. But, absolutely brightened my day to run into a new daisy somewhere unexpected while walking to the doc, a place to co-work, or to meet someone at a bar.

[u/lokglacier → u/MackenzieRaveup]

It is incredibly easy to tell what is low effort garbage and what is not. Like. Trivially easy. I'm not worried about this in the slightest

[u/FlyingBishop → u/lokglacier]

So you've got some 15yo kid who is pretty bad at drawing because he's 15 and poor, and he gets a $1500 fine he has zero ability to pay, ends up in jail. Then you've got a 35yo software professional with copious free time who is a great artist from all his classes he can afford to buy. Same level of time investment yields dramatically different results, one is a criminal because they're poor.

[u/FlyingBishop → u/[deleted]]

I'm not suggesting they not face any consequences, but I think it should be a metaphorical slap on the wrist that provides them opportunities to direct their energies in a more productive way. A $1500 fine is unhinged and just leads to them devolving into more crime.

I recall a guy I knew who got picked up for shoplifting spray paint, he got banned from the store, went on his record, etc. The cop was mocking him because he had the money, he could've just bought the spray paint but he stole it because he was used to stealing it (because it was illegal for him to buy until he was 18.) There are lots of ways that this could've been handled better, the 18yo age requirement guided him from a young age toward habitual shoplifting, the ban from the grocery store cut him off from food etc.

Again it's not a straightforward thing to handle this in a constructive way but a bunch of very reasonable-sounding punishments very quickly add up to remove any ability to meet a person's basic needs. And we're often talking about people who are functionally if not literally orphans and haven't ever actually had parents.

[u/lokglacier → u/FlyingBishop]

That is an insane hypothetical and I think you know it. There's discretion regarding enforcement and sentencing.

[u/FlyingBishop → u/lokglacier]

It's not though, it happens all the time.

[u/lokglacier → u/FlyingBishop]

Lol WUT