Dangling shoes also part of broken windows theory

Los Angeles Times writes about dangling shoes in Long beach, California.

Some people say the suspended sneakers, high-tops and boots mark a place where drugs are sold. Other lore holds they commemorate a killing, mark gang territory or vow retaliation.
Others insist throwing shoes tied together by their laces over a wire is just a kid’s prank, an effort to leave a mark that’s as pointless as sticking gum under a table.

Some City councilmen wants to set up a shoe remove service, like graffiti removing service’s known around the world.

“It’s nothing but a blight. Look what it does to community, to property values,” said Councilman Dee Andrews[...]. “If you see one tennis shoe hanging off a wire and you don’t do anything about it, you’re going to see another, and another, and you’re opening up the floodgates.”

In present time it is the company who owns the power lines, that is responsible for taking the shoes down, but it is no easy task figuring out who owns which power lines.

Figuring out who should get them down is such a puzzle that after one recent complaint, city officials gave up and dispatched the Fire Department to take down one pair with a ladder truck.

City officials see the dangling shoe problem much like graffiti.

It’s an urban ill cities nationwide have tried to eliminate, particularly since the “broken windows” theory of crime prevention took hold in the late 1990s. The thinking was that if vandalism such as a broken window was left unrepaired, a neighborhood would slowly decay and fall victim to more serious crimes.

From Los Angeles Times

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