MORE PAINT

MORE PAINT is a photography book and civic conversation about Seattle as it exists right now— seen through graffiti, encampments, redevelopment, cleanup, and return. What begins on the surface opens into larger questions about growth, public space, displacement, policy, who a city is built to serve, and questions of safety and territoriality.

This panel would use the themes of MORE PAINT as an entry point into a broader public discussion about Seattle in a period of rapid change. Over the last two years, Seattle has added roughly 37,000 residents. That pressure is felt across the city, from neighborhoods like West Seattle to the streets and sidewalks downtown, where visible poverty and homelessness continue to shape daily life. At the same time, a large public and nonprofit infrastructure has emerged to respond to the crisis. Money is being spent. Policy is being made. Systems are expanding. But how does our city experience its own decisions? Are they meaningfully felt in the communities most affected?

This conversation is designed to bring together viewpoints that do not often share the same stage. Erik Bell represents neighborhood-level stewardship and volunteer cleanup through A Cleaner Alki. Anitra Freeman brings the perspective of longtime advocacy and direct engagement with the realities of homelessness through her work with Real Change. Simon Foster offers systems-level insight from regional homelessness leadership.

Moderated by Brandon Bye, author of MORE PAINT, the discussion will connect the visual and narrative world of the book to the harder civic questions underneath it.

Consensus is not the goal of the event. It is a public conversation about how Seattle sees itself, about how it governs itself, and what growth, care, control, and accountability look like.

Presented by Town Hall Seattle.

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