A racist slur spray-painted on the side of a Sydney apartment building has some residents upset it stayed there so long.
Mabel Matheson says it’s been nearly a week since she first noticed racist graffitipainted in large, black letters, while taking a friend apartment hunting.
"Oh my gosh, I wanted to cry. In this day and age, I couldn't believe somebody would actually write something like that on a building,” Matheson said.
The “N-word” was still visible from the road as recently as Monday morning.
Matheson says it hurts her on a personal level.
"I have black children and grandchildren, and I certainly wouldn't want them to see something like that on a building,” she said.
When CTV News returned to the building later on Monday, the slur had been painted over.
Matheson says she’s been trying for days to have it removed.
"I called her on numerous occasions, maybe four or five times,” she said.
Tenant R.J. Gregg says he noticed it weeks ago and complained to the landlord.
"I think it should have been removed the first day someone complained about it, instead of trying to remove it when CTV News comes,” Gregg said.
The building’s landlord, however, says it was only brought to her attention Sunday evening and, to her knowledge, has only been there over the weekend.
She denies receiving any complaints from her tenants about it and says action was taken to remove the slur as quickly as possible.
But tenants like Gregg aren’t satisfied.
"I can't really say it's been removed. You can still kind of see it,” he said.
With files from CTV Atlantic’s Ryan MacDonald
