Portland businesses fed up with graffiti
By Jeffrey Lindblom
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PORTLAND Oregon (KPTV) — Several southeast Portland businesses are fed up with continuous graffiti on their walls.
After about a dozen people came by early in the morning on Wednesday and sprayed what appeared to be random symbols and markings on their building, they’re saying enough is enough.
Haylee Woll, with Urban Works Real Estate, said she regularly deals with people tagging their building. Most recently, the group of vandals who were caught on camera marked the second time within the week they had to get their walls cleaned.
“The whole side of this building was completely tagged,” she pointed at the side of the building. Walking across the street, she pointed out another building. “They hit this block pretty hard.”
She said something that set this event apart from the times before. She described the group of taggers as a “mob,” and said that it was apparent they had the sights set on tagging a bunch of buildings.
“It just seemed like it was with the intention of destruction,” Woll said. “They weren’t even wearing face coverings. They knew they could get away with it. At this point, it’s just too regular for us.”
Nearby businesses are hoping someone may recognize any of these people, as some say they’re aware police are busy with other matters. Either way, they are still wanting the individuals responsible to be caught.
“There’s no point,” Woll said. “It’s not art. It was just disrespect.”
Just a few blocks down from where she works, she explained that she’s especially disappointed that a mural of Darcelle XV was vandalized, a Portland icon who passed away a short while ago.
“I watch how much effort goes into an art piece like this,” she looked at the vandalized mural, “and it’s just blatantly tarnishing somebody’s work. I can’t imagine how disheartening that would be to come in and see your work defaced for no reason.”
Woll said a good samaritan helped paint their walls early in the morning, and the city also came by and helped out too.
All in all, she says the business she works for loves Portland, as they promote it, but they just want things like this to stop.
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