Gentrification hasn’t taken all of the edge out of Brooklyn.
Spike Lee‘s former Fort Greene home was vandalized Friday — just three days after the famed director went on an expletive-filled rant against hipsters who made his old neighborhood look like the “m—–f—–g Westminster dog show.”
Lee’s former home and a brownstone next door were hit with spray-paint graffiti inspired by one of the filmmaker’s most famous movies.
One building on Washington Park had “Do the Right Thing” spray-painted on it and a window on the front door smashed, while Lee’s family’s home had the movie’s partial title written on the side of the stoop.
“I think that Spike needs to stop mentioning the house in his comments,” Lee’s half-brother Arnold, who lives at the home, told the Daily News.
“He can say whatever he wants, but don’t mention that.”
Dianne Mackenzie, whose property bore the brunt of the vandalism, said she’s sure that Lee’s recent comments prompted the damage.
“I’m sure it’s directly connected with the remarks he made,” Mackenzie said.
“I was p—–d as hell.”
Police are investigating the incident.
Lee created a firestorm during a Tuesday night appearance at the Pratt Institute by comparing the new, well-heeled residents to hostile invaders.
“You can’t just come in the neighborhood and start bogarting and say, like you’re m—–f—–g Columbus and kill off the Native Americans,” Lee said.
“And why does it take an influx of white New Yorkers in the South Bronx, in Harlem, in Bed-Stuy, in Crown Heights for the facilities to get better?”
The area surrounding the park was largely Italian in 1968 when Lee’s parents bought a brownstone for $40,000, the filmmaker has said.
While that may have been a pricey sum back then, the filmmaker’s posh 8,292-square-foot pad on the Upper East Side hit the market in November for a whopping $32 million.
Mackenzie, who has lived at the home since 1998, said she disagreed with Lee’s remarks and was disgusted by the subsequent backlash.
“He’s gone on these kinds of rants before. Now it’s really directly impacting me,” she said. “This is not the kind of thing that happens in this kind of neighborhood.”
Lee could not be reached for comment Friday.
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