Shoes on a power line at E. 199th St. and Valentine Ave. There were more of these; this was shot out my car window as I noticed them at a stoplight. Why do they throw them up there? (Who are “they?”) Who picks these up? (Does anyone?)
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Shoes on a power line at E. 199th St. and Valentine Ave. There were more of these; this was shot out my car window as I noticed them at a stoplight. Why do they throw them up there? (Who are “they?”) Who picks these up? (Does anyone?)
This page contains a single entry from the blog posted on October 10, 2007 11:41 AM.
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Comments (5)
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Posted by Preerfugs | November 19, 2009 12:11 PM
Posted on November 19, 2009 12:11
The marking of drug territory is in fact an urban myth. I came upon this while doing research for my exhibition design class project last semester - a NY Times article that is quite enlightening about this sociological phenomenon: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/15/nyregion/15ink.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
As for whose job it is to remove them - it's unclear to me. It seems like a rather dangerous mission, not to mention the ongoing argument about the aesthetic value of these old shoes hanging in the air. I wonder if there have been any strange outcomes - like birds building nests in the old shoes - as result. An interesting "piece" that I included was the work of NYC-based graffiti artists Ad and Droo (know collectively as Skewville)- check out the work they've done w/shoes on their website: http://www.whendogsfly.com/
Is this aggrivating the problem, just drawing awareness to it, or does this have no place in a public place art or not?
Posted by Jackie Peterson | October 10, 2007 2:45 PM
Posted on October 10, 2007 14:45
Yeah, I have heard the same thing, but I'm not really sure that people take them down. I know back home in St. Louis there is this one street downtown that we occasionally drive by and the same shoes have hung there as long as I can remember. I don't think it would be the sanitation department's job to take care of something like that. I don't know....what do you think?
Posted by Kelly Rangel | October 10, 2007 1:24 PM
Posted on October 10, 2007 13:24
I have also heard that. Or, if the shoes are on a powerline in front of a specific house, that's a house where you can score drugs.
Posted by Alex Starace | October 10, 2007 1:00 PM
Posted on October 10, 2007 13:00
I always heard that they were marking out gang territories and the domains of drug dealers - but maybe this is an urban myth?
Posted by Haidy Geismar | October 10, 2007 11:49 AM
Posted on October 10, 2007 11:49