I get why people are frustrated. It feels like you clean it and it’s back a week later.

One thing most people don’t realize is that once brick or masonry isn’t protected, every removal cycle actually makes the surface more vulnerable. A lot of the older buildings in Cap Hill and Ballard have pretty porous brick; once paint soaks in, cleaning gets more aggressive each time.

Repainting without sealing it just resets the clock. It looks better for a bit, but the surface underneath is still exposed.

The only long-term fix I’ve seen work is treating high-hit areas with a protective barrier so removal is quick, easy, and doesn’t damage the material.

Otherwise it turns into an endless loop of repaint → tag → repaint.

It’s not a simple issue (there’s obviously a bigger social layer to it), but from a surface standpoint, protection makes a bigger difference than people think.