Graffiti was carved into their windows. The city wants these Seattle bars to fix it or pay up

The city of Seattle issued warnings to two businesses about some very unique graffiti on their front windows. It's prompted the question: Who's responsible for graffiti cleanup?

J

onah Bergman recently noticed a paper stuck to a window on his bar, Bait Shop in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood. It was a notice from the city, stating that Bait Shop had been flagged as a potential graffiti nuisance property.

The offending graffiti wasn't paint. It was etched into a glass window, as if someone used a key or knife to scratch it.

"We had 10 days to to take care of the etching in our window, or else we would be fined $100 a day, up to $5,000," Bergman said.

The etchings are on one of Bait Shop's front windows. They're around eye level, and look like they could potentially be a tag. But there are no discernible words or symbols.

Bergman said it had been there since the pandemic.

"It was just kind of a surprise, that it would be seen as a nuisance," he said.

Bergman said he and his staffers always clean up any painted graffiti that appears on the building. They also take care of the bus stop located in front of the bar. But fixing a window is a lot harder than wiping away some paint.

"You might have to replace the entire window," Bergman said. "And if you do that, you know, just the way the universe works, someone's gonna put another etching in the following day."

Bait Shop isn't alone. Olmste(a)d, a restaurant, also located in Capitol Hill, also received a notice about scratches on its window.

Co-owner Gregg Holcomb said the scratches on Olmste(a)d's windows have been there since before the restaurant moved into the space. The building sat empty for eight years prior to Olmste(a)d's opening.

Seattle's graffiti notices

Like Bait Shop, Holcomb said Olmste(a)d staff regularly clean graffiti paint off of their building. As a co-chair of Broadway's Business Improvement Area, he also regularly cleans graffiti off of other buildings, too. So he was confused as to why the city is focusing on businesses like his for graffiti removal.

The answer is simple: Someone reported the windows to the city.

That's according to Paul Jackson, director of graffiti programs and initiatives for the city of Seattle. He said the reports about Bait Shop and Olmste(a)d likely came via a complaint made online, by phone, or through the city’s “find it fix it” app.

"Anybody can report a property," Jackson said. "A constituent, a staff member, police officer, a fire department, anybody."

Essentially, any place that has been reported as having graffiti is treated as a nuisance property. When a property is reported, Jackson said an employee with the city's public utilities group notifies the property, and offers to collaborate.

"If we don't hear back, we go out again and try to make contact," Jackson said. "And we continue to do that until we get to a point where something has to be done."

The notice these businesses received is basically the city's final call, asking for collaboration. The 10-day time limit is the city’s way of saying, “Hey, call us. Right now.”

Jackson emphasizes that the notices are not meant to be a punishment.

"We know property owners whose buildings are tagged are victims of a crime," Jackson said. "That's why we offer the paint supplies and supportive graffiti removal at no cost to the property owning our business. We look to collaborate."

Bergman and Holcomb both agree that they were offered more time when they reached out to the city about these notices. For now the clock to get the etchings repaired has been put on pause.

But both also say that the notice didn't feel like support. It felt like punishing the victim of a crime, instead of the person who perpetrated it.

"It's a small community of small businesses," Bergman said. "And I think the last thing small businesses need is another another issue to deal with. It's like, maybe help us out instead of penalizing us for the state of our city."