January 29, 2008
DDOT Removes Shoes from Shaw Trees
District Department of Transportation workers this morning removed dozens of shoes that had been flung up in two trees in the 400 block of Q Street NW.
The work was done after residents complained on the Third Police District email listserve that they believe the shoes had been placed there over the years as a way to mark gang or drug territory.
One resident posted to the listserve over the weekend: "When will the shoes on the street poles along 7th St be taken down? There are now two pairs of shoes on the 1300 block of 7th, one on either side, supposedly marking gang and/or drug dealer territory. Someone (with a big ladders) should take down those down. They should be treated with the same urgency as gang graffitti."
"The mother lode of hanging shoes in Shaw is on the north side of the 400 block of Q Street NW, on a tree, in front of a well known nuisance property," wrote Charles Walker, another resident. "This problem has been there for years, and nobody has lifted a finger to take those shoes out of that tree. The atmosphere on that block is threatening. Residents feel unsafe. Please have those shoes removed from that tree."
The shoes on 7th street were removed Monday, and the Q Street trees followed this morning. Several trees and telephone wires in Shaw are now being targeted by DDOT and the Mayor's Office of Community Relations and Services.
There is some debate over what the shoes actually signify. Shoe flinging or "shoefiti" seems to mean different things to different neighborhoods.
"I've heard that (the shoes) symbolized a memorial for people that had gotten killed. But I've also heard that it could mean 'open for business'," said Sgt. Gerard Lee, who is assigned to the Third District's PSA 308 and was on hand for this morning's shoe removal.
Regardless of what the shoes mean, Joseph Martin, Mayor Fenty's Ward 2 outreach and services specialist, says they are being treated as a nuisance and a part of his office's public safety efforts.
"If there are items in trees, from the standpoint of urban forestry, why would we look the other way just because they happen to be sneakers?" Martin said.
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I remember there used to be a "shoe tree" on the GW campus outside one of the fraternity houses on G Street. The rumors were that any time two frat brothers had sex with the same girl, a pair of shoes went up.
I have no idea if that rumor was true, but it did result in the campus feminists protesting the tree and the frat house, with one over-caffinated member of the womyn's group (yes, they spelled it that way) saying that her peeps would stand outside the frat house on weekends, waiting to hear the screams of girls being raped inside, and then they would burst into the house to rescue them. Ah, those were good times in the mid-90s.
"You want a brewdog?"
"We're not interested in your penis!"
That's just too much work throwing shoes up into a tree. I prefer the tie on the front door knob to signify when it's business time to my roommates.
Are there any left? I need some fresh kicks.
Guns People don't kill people, shoes in trees do.
thanks for the PCU quote, TW!
and, captain easychord, it can't hurt to make legitimate attempts to do everything possible to cut down on crime. if there was a chance that this was there to signify gang-related crap, than good riddance, and thank you DDOT for getting out there and doing this.
Who cares why or how they got up there, what it amounts to is litter. If the trash is on the ground, pick it up. If it's in the trees, bring it down and dispose of it. Thank you, DDOT.
I never really bought the whole drug dealer theory. Why would a drug dealer advertise to the whole world that there's illegal activity going on in their house? I would think they'd have more common sense than that. And who would knock on someone's door looking for drugs because there's shoes on the tree?
Shoes in trees and power lines have a long and illustrious history, particularly among the inarticulate.
Ha ha...PCU..."Can you blow me where the pampers is?"
I've now forgotten what this thread was originally about...
I'm a size 6 1/2 ...
my neighborhood's trees are littered with those cheap plastic bags people get from liquor stores and dollar stores. i wonder if ddot would be so kind as to clean that crap up as well.
"i wonder if ddot would be so kind as to clean that crap up as well."
It sounds like you have to turn it into a public safety issue. Post a message to the listserv complaining about how babies will be suffocated, or something.
John? Is that you?
Just joking hahahaha.
That kind of makes me sad. I've always loved shoes hanging from street lights (that was common in Chicagoland as a kid), trees and powerlines. I always thought of it as just whimsical -- like community dadaist art.
Once again the conspiracy theorists have won.
Go home, Borf.
Sorry, DC1974, I feel the points you make in some of your posts, but I really doubt those shoes were "art" to the people who put them up.
They needed to come down.