As the fog lifted from Seattle on a balmy 55° stroll into the office I was stunned by the ZEB free streets. My route: 4th Ave north to Blanchard, down to Western. I’m not sure if ZEB had a deep respect for Tom Douglas’s restaurants, the Cinerama, The Croc or perhaps a love for rustic pizza at Via Tribunali, but the streets were void of his presence. Just like Kevin Spacey said in The Usual Suspects, “And like that [blows on his hand as he opens it up] … he was gone.”

That’s my first theory … tomorrow may prove otherwise as it could have just been the route I chose. However, the more appropriate answer is that the Graffiti Task Force has probably been inundated by calls to get the paint off their stores before they’re fined. It’s no small expense for some of these businesses if it’s not removed in a timely manner per Seattle’s Graffiti Nuisance Ordinance. Perhaps they’ve finally put the kibosh on the tagging.

Whatever the case, it was somewhat surreal to shoot 13 tags yesterday and see only three today. It was somewhat sad too where they were at. A small alley between First and Western, just off of Blanchard. There were tons of food scraps, rubber gloves and the faint perfume of refuse and crackheads from the night before. Whereas ZEB was in the forefront of the community. Today I could only find him in a dark, dew laden alley.

Here’s to hoping for better hunting tomorrow.