Why do people hang their shoes on power lines?
Asked by
sumul (
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October 18th, 2008
I noticed this a lot in some parts of Brooklyn when I lived there. I also notice it is in Oakland sometimes.
Wikipedia has a little info, but not much.
Do people tie their shoelaces together and then toss them up onto the power lines where you live? Do you know why?
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12 Answers
I also heard, well around here, that, thats a way to pick on someone… Steal shoes and throw them where they can’t reach
From what I’ve seen, collections of pairs of shoes on power lines, the phenomenon is most apparent at significant times like: end of school, holiday…
it marks the death of a gang leader, i heard.
I think it’s kind of like how people scratch their names in wet cement.
Or carve their initials in trees. Just to leave a little something behind.
As some sort of fairly harmless mini rebellion.
I’ve done it before. We did it as a culmination of a great night out with friends.
It’s a nice reminder of that night whenever we’re walking or driving by.
I’d imagine it’d be the same for the reasons Jvgr already mentioned:
end of school, holiday, or some other small but jubilant occasion.
Nimis….I have your shoes ;)
I don’t know why it’s done, but some of these theories really cracked me up. I live in a woefully rural area—cable lines don’t even run down my road—and I see shoes on the power lines all the time. As a matter of fact, just the other day I noticed a pair while I was out and about. The idea of a gang leader dying at the intersection of two gravel-and-tar-paved roads amuses me a bit.
At the corner of St. Marks and Third Ave in the East Village, NYC there are two painted plywood cutouts of shoes attached by laces and thrown over a power line. I love it as a piece of art. It’s very This is not a pipe. I wish I had a picture to share with you.
its a sign of where drugs a sold i know ‘cause where i live every one smokes marrow its stupid and hopefully i wont but you dont know someone might sell you one and you think its a siggy and poof your high
MacB: Agreed. These answers are cracking me up. Love the image of a bunch of mourning, shoeless, gangbangers-at the intersection of two gravel and tar-paved roads.
well were i live they are in pacific parts of town. were gangs and drug dealers are around so people always told me that it was for people to no were drugs and gangs wear!*(:
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