What’s the Word on Graffiti?

Written by Tim Buckley, October 2024

Graffiti. Tagging. Like all animals do, humans tag things according to territory as well. We do it with fences, with state and national boundaries and with paint.

It was a risk, putting up a 30-foot mural painted by Kaethe Mentrum on the fence along the northern edge of Northgate Park. The mural depicts natural landscapes filled with Northwest animals. Risky, because the park had earned a reputation for being unsafe for children and adults, more famous for its use as a place where other kinds of paint, in the form of graffiti, was prevalent. It had become largely vacant during the daytime, with litter collecting against the fences. At night, the taggers would visit and sometimes violent outbreaks between rival youth groups would occur.

That all changed when the Hallman-Northgate Neighborhood Family Council and Northgate Neighborhood Association teamed up to reclaim the park. They did it with frequent family events, with more volunteer care and with more police presence. Fun Fridays, holiday events, soccer tournaments, gardening and other activities came back. It was safe again. But, nothing lasts forever. The mural was tagged a few weeks ago, along with other property in and around the park.

“Those who use the park to express themselves with spray paint had left the mural and the rest of the park alone for a few months,” said Eduardo Angulo, who lives along the fence abutting the park. “We were grateful because it shows the young people also have respect for other people’s property. So, when the graffiti showed up, I made a few calls to alert the neighborhood volunteers who quickly painted over the tagging. Unfortunately, the parents and kids who walked through the park that morning on the way to school saw the graffiti that had been left the night before. It was discouraging to me and to them as well,” he said.

The artist, having realized from the start that vandalism might happen, had used a type of paint that allows cleaning the mural easily. The graffiti abatement team joined Kaethe and Eduardo in the park that morning and the group made fast work in covering the tagging laid down the previous night.

“What was remarkable about the whole thing is that when the kids returned home from school that day, the graffiti was gone,” Eduardo added. “The mural was restored, and the park seemed as friendly and safe as they remembered. It showed them that we’ve got their backs. And it showed how the power of committed neighbors can continue to keep the peace.”

The park is also home to two Little Free Libraries, which had also been vandalized in the past, knocked over, spray painted, and its books strewn around. But in the past year, the libraries have been largely left alone. “The little libraries have become a part of the neighborhood literacy program,” Eduardo said. “They are constantly being used and families have come to treasure the opportunity to take a book home and perhaps leave a book in its place.”

“Respect is something that doesn’t always happen when and where you want,” Eduardo continued. “But as we’re seeing in the park, those who want to claim it as their territory are perhaps learning how to live respectfully alongside those of us who also want to use the same spaces. Perhaps they see their parents and their brothers and sisters using the park, reading the library books, helping in the garden, participating in events, and they begin to see how respect works both ways. Perhaps they begin to see boundaries in a different way, too, and how to establish themselves in community in healthier, more peaceful ways.”