With Warm Weather Comes Rise In Graffiti

Sometime this weekend — either Friday night or Saturday — a new tagger made their mark and defaced a historic building, the .

Renton typically sees an increase in graffiti during the months of February, March and April, and this year is no different.

While tagging incidents have decreased by 60 percent over the last two years from 663 in March 2009, to 277 in March of 2010, to 142 in March 2011, tagging is again on the rise, said Renton’s Graffiti Abatement Coordinator.

As of Monday, April 16 the Renton Police Department had received about 70 reported graffiti events.

A yellow tag, similar to the one made on the front of the History Museum,  was also found in a nearby alley, said Renton's Graffiti Abatement Coordinator. She will be investigating the tagger's identity against other tags from throughout the region.

The new tag is now gone, thanks to Museum Director Liz Stewart who painted over the graffiti on Sunday night. However, local taggers — who are well-known by the Renton Police Department, and described as ‘prolific’ — answered the new tag with a response across the street on the Seattle water structure.

The responding tag is a way for taggers to stake their claim.

A Facebook post about the graffiti on the museum sparked outrage from Renton residents, who called the act “despicable,” “aweful,” and “heart-breaking.”

The City of Renton, WA Facebook page responded with, “Just a reminder: if you see graffiti in action, please call 911. The City offers a $300 reward to anyone whose information results in the arrest and conviction of vandals.”

The City launched the “Wipe Out Graffiti” campaign several years ago and enacted a Graffiti Control Ordinance that went into effect in January 2009 to help control tagging.

The program also has a graffiti hotline, 425-430-7373. For more information about the program, call 425-430-7362, or visit the City’s web site at  wipeoutgraffiti.rentonwa.gov.