One of Portland’s oldest convenience stores just had an iconic piece of artwork removed. It is not known whether the convenience store decided to remove it themselves or whether this was done by the city if it was deemed as vandalism. The artwork in question depicted a picture of a frog happily holding a mushroom. Until recently, this quirky piece of street art had been in place for years so it’s understandable why some people were upset to see it go.

It is believed that this took place over the New Year period, but the reasons for its removal remain unknown. To some, this may have been viewed as pointless graffiti, but for others, it represented the artistic spirit of the city. In short, it’s stuff like this that epitomizes the ‘Keep Portland weird’ mantra which has given the city character and charm over the years.

This took place at the Food & Cigs Express store on NW Vaughn. Interestingly, Google has this place listed as permanently closed, so the removal of the frog could have been done by the building owner. News of the removal was posted on Reddit where one user went as far as to say: “No! that’s near my job and I loved that dumb frog.”

Love it or hate it, it looks like the removal of the frog artwork shows a new chapter in Portland’s street art culture and hints toward more gentrification.