Vandals spray-painted threatening words including “die,” “gentrification” and “get out” on the windows of two Portland, Oregon real estate brokerage offices over the holiday weekend.
Employees at Urban Nest Realty on North Williams Avenue and Living Room Realty on Northeast Alberta Street, located just two miles apart in the Oregon city, found their office windows scrawled with graffiti Wednesday morning, according to a report on Oregon’s local Fox affiliate, KPTV Fox 12.
“There is a lot of conversation about gentrification in Portland, which is a good thing,” Rachel Freed, co-owner of Urban Nest Realty told Inman by email. “Sadly someone had to resort to doing something destructive to try and get heard. We welcome a conversation but not the destruction to our property.”
An employee with Urban Nest Realty told Fox 12 that the surveillance cameras were off over the holiday weekend. They believe the vandals struck sometime over the four-day holiday weekend.
Urban Nest Realty is a two-office indie brokerage in Portland with roughly 40 agents. It was founded in 2011. Freed told Inman it’s not the first time the building has been tagged, but it’s the first time, to her knowledge, that anything threatening was written.
“We paid for removal and tried to file a police report but were told that since there was no actual damage (to the building) the police wouldn’t accept a formal complaint,” Freed said.
Living Room Realty has more than 125 agents in six offices in the Pacific Northwest, with four in Portland. A spokesperson for the brokerage declined to comment on the incident.
Updated: Story updated with comment from Urban Nest Realty.