Washington’s latest attempt at graffiti cleanup: drones

One of the groups, 206 Zulu, is a nonprofit that focuses on helping people express themselves through hip-hop, dance and art like graffiti. The group is based in Washington Hall in the Central District, where they hold events like dance, graffiti art or other competitions. 

206 Zulu’s executive director, Khazm Kogita, whose artist name is King Khazm, said they used the $60,000 grant to commission artists to make three murals at 13th & Fir Family Housing, an affordable family housing building with 156 apartments in the Chinatown/International District. 

The first mural, inspired by the Coast Salish tribes, shows people rowing on a red boat with Salish tribe markings in a large range of shades: blues, reds, purples, grays and blacks. 

The second was an abstract mural of a woman dancing to music coming from a gramophone. 

The third spans the height of the six-story building on two parts of the structure. It features the eyes of children, with different career paths in their background. One of them wears a yellow construction hat. Another is underwater, next to a fish with diving goggles on. 

The grant money was distributed to the artists and spent on supplies to create the murals. 

“We don’t condone illegal vandalism. It’s kind of a nuanced history and certainly [we] understand the roots and context of how graffiti has evolved, but in terms of 206 Zulu, we use aerosol art as a way to create a vibrant community,” Kogita said. 

Before making the murals, Kogita did community outreach to learn what they wanted the mural to show and researched the local art scene. He said graffiti can also become part of the culture of neighborhoods. 

“Part of the thing we do that we want to champion are alternatives away from vandalism and have alternative spaces for people to develop their skills and nurture their techniques to be able to improve themselves as artists,” Kogita said. 

Kogita said another possible way to mitigate vandalism is for the city to have “free walls” to allow people to express themselves freely in different areas. 

He shared that some of the graffiti community felt there were larger problems for the state to tackle, like homelessness, mental health and addiction. 

“Graffiti, it’s not really important in the larger scheme,” Kogita said. “Those are the real issues that are concerning to the community.”

Christina Goto, who grew up in Sammamish but now lives in Seattle’s Rainier Beach, agrees and thinks the money from the drone program would be better allocated to different things in the city like public health and education. 

“I am really opposed to spending more money than is necessary on things that aren’t critical in terms of bettering the quality of the lives of the community,” she said. 

Goto was one of a few commenters who shared their disdain for the program on Instagram. She thinks free walls or funding artists to make murals would better alleviate the graffiti problem.  

B. Gnarley feels politicians go after graffiti for instant gratification. “It’s the same in every city. They’re always going to go after the low-hanging fruit. It’s easy to do,” he said. “And there’s plenty of other problems that we deal with in the city than if somebody’s doing art on a wall somewhere.”