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.