Graffiti was the issue of the night when Seattle City Councilmember Sally Clark and Seattle City Attorney Peter Holmes stopped by the Sept. 8 Ballard District Council meeting to answer questions and address concerns from neighborhood residents and representatives.

While Holmes spent some time on other issues, such as the recent funding disagreement between Mayor Mike McGinn and the Museum of History and Industry, the majority of questions and comments that came his way were related to the damage done to the neighborhood and its businesses through graffiti and how to stop it.

Despite trying to prosecute as many taggers as possible, prosecutions are down 40 percent from the previous year, Holmes said.

He said it is a question of priorities with limited resources, but he encourages neighbors to be vigilant. He said community members should be active, call the city, report problems and organize block watches.

If residents are able to help the Seattle Police Department by taking pictures of taggers or calling 911 in time for the police to catch them in the act, the department will be thorough in doing their job, Holmes said.

He said the city is trying new approaches to the problem, such as getting the community courts more involved and making taggers clean up their own graffiti as a disincentive. He joked that the city was toying with the idea of copyrighting the most frequent tags then bringing in the U.S. Marshals to prosecute for copyright infringement.

Holmes also spent time talking about Alcohol Impact Areas, which are designated areas in the city where the sale of low-cost beverages with high alcohol content, such as malt liquors, is banned. One Ballard resident was concerned that Alcohol Impact Areas in Pioneer Square and downtown Seattle had moved the problem to other neighborhoods.

Holmes said the transfer of the problem is one potential downside of the Alcohol Impact Areas. But, they make it easier for prosecutors to do their job, he said.

He said questions about the effectiveness of Alcohol Impact Areas will be moot if Washington voters pass Initiative 1100 or Initiative 1105 in November. Those initiatives would, among other things, privatize liquor sales, making hard alcohol, not just wine and beer, available at grocery stores and other retailers.

Holmes said he believes both initiatives are bad ideas in terms of quality of life and the funding they will cost the state from the loss of state-owned liquor stores.

"You might look back on this time with fondness," he said.

Clark spent time answering questions about updating Seattle's Multifamily Code, rental housing inspection laws and Neighborhood Plans, but mostly focused on redeveloping Seattle's waterfront.

The city is getting ready to look at proposals from four design groups in order to choose the one that will be responsible for the new look of the waterfront once the Alaskan Way Viaduct is removed.

The design portion of the project, which Clark called "shockingly expensive," will cost $12 million to $14 million.

She said the city plans to pay for that by increasing the commercial parking tax from 10 percent to 12.5 percent.

The actual redevelopment of the waterfront will be paid for through a combination of property tax increase, local improvement district tax or other measures passed by voters, she said.

Clark offhandedly tossed out a few possibilities for the new waterfront, such as a ferris wheel, a water slide or green space. The ferris wheel possibility garnered some enthusiasm from Ballard representatives.