I have long joked about the negative feelings that Californians inspire among citizens in the remaining 49 states.
However, new arrivals to Portland, Oregon were the victims of something more than a joke. Their home and auto were the target of a graffiti attack that told them to return to the Golden State.
A couple from California, who relocated to Portland 4 months ago, woke up Sunday to find their car and house vandalized.Messages including “Get California out of Portland” and “Move back” were spray painted across the house and car of Jessica Faraday and Preston Page.Their car was also keyed.The couple filed a police report, however, they said they an idea of who may have tagged their property.
Nobody has been charged with the vandalism, however the couple suspects that it may be tied to an incident earlier in the week. Jessica Faraday and Preston Page were backing out of their driveway a couple of days ago when they had a road rage incident with another driver in the Northeast Portland neighborhood. Page challenged a driver who was speeding down the street as he was backing out in his car.
Page said he believes the person who did this is the same person he yelled at for speeding down his street. He said that person in turn yelled out, “Go back to California.””Usually when you’re upset with someone you have a conversation with them. Maybe it’s heated, maybe it’s not and you let it go, you don’t dwell on things … I guess not this guy,” Page said.
However, less than positive attitudes toward Californians may have been a contributing factor.
There is no more terrifying bogeyman in all of Portland.The beast steals our jobs and our self-respect. It keeps us from buying homes.It is The Californian.Fear of Golden State transplants goes back decades in Oregon, even sparking a tongue-in-cheek — and yet quite serious — 1970s zero-population-growth movement called the James G. Blaine Society, one of whose mottos was “Don’t Californicate Oregon.”Now, with real-estate prices surging like never before and traffic and pollution seemingly worse by the day, anger at Californians has reached a new boiling point in Oregon’s largest city.
Page believes that this may have been part of the motivation for the graffiti attack on his car and newly renovated home.
“So much industry has come in here and, I’m sure, pushed some locals out. That can be rough … you see housing prices double, or triple in the past five to ten years,” Page said.”I don’t think it’s directed at Californians, just noticeably because a lot of them coming up here. But I’m sure it’s all the transplants add in the frustration,” he continued.
Why are blue cities such a cesspool of intolerance and bigotry?
CLICK HERE FOR FULL VERSION OF THIS STORY