CVS recently purchased an old Rite Aid building in West Seattle, home to a large, ever-changing mural that local artists paint over and over to express their work. Throughout the years, more than 150 murals have been created on the wall, created by both local and internationally known muralists.
One of those local artists, Desmond Hansen, advocated for keeping the wall alive after the building changed hands and explained why, if Seattle took a more lenient approach to graffiti, taxpayers would save a substantial amount of money.
“Our city actually overspends on covering up graffiti, in my opinion, the evolution of wall space around the city, whether it’s illegal or legal, if it were kind of let go a little bit, it would evolve into more artistic behavior,” Hansen said. “The wall in West Seattle is constantly evolving. Sometimes, there might be some areas of it that look like scribbles and not very appealing artistic graffiti or murals themselves, and then those evolve into nicer, artistic, more colorful displays.”…