An unidentified suspect was caught on video defacing the Vida Apartments on Mission Street in San Francisco sometime last week.
Judging by a post accompanying the 17-second clip, the vandalism appears to be a form of protest against spreading gentrification in the city.
The video shows the suspect walking along the façade of the building, cracking its windows. The person who filmed the incident uploaded the video to a neighborhood website IndyBay along with a note promising retaliation against the city's influx of "rich" residents.
"This is an escalation from a sentiment of resistance to gentrification to a direct attack against it,"
the uploader wrote. "We join the vandals of fastagent signs, Google Bus blockades, the Midtown Apartments rent strike, and other clandestine offensives with a window smashing attack on condos in the Mission."
The note continued: "While the developers/colonizers feast on our city, not even the crumbs could be saved through legal means. We fight because the issue of our homes and survival is not up to a vote by anyone."
A front desk receptionist at the apartment complex told Mission Local that management has filed a police report about the incident, which is just one in a slew of recent attacks on the building. Its windows and concrete have been vandalized before and graffiti has been popping up along the building’s sides.
Though San Francisco resident Jai Mayhew recognizes that gentrification is a problem, she is not supportive of the vandals' method of retribution.
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"I think it shows immaturity, and I don’t think it’s right," Mayhew said. "I think it shows lack of respect for the community, as a matter of fact. And I wish people would to more to remedy this than cause this issue and just break windows."
The Vida apartments opened for move-in at the beginning of 2015. At the time, the monthly rent for a two-bedroom unit hovered around $8,000.
Gentrification has been hitting the Mission District especially hard in the last year. The predominantly-Latino neighborhood is facing a huge decline in the number of families and Latinos living in the area, according to a study commissioned by the city’s budget and legislative analyst.
NBC Bay Area's Gillian Edevane contributed to this report.
