Like most people, we’ve always wondered what the significance of all those pairs of sneakers looped over telephone wires was. The only theory we had ever heard was that it marked some kind of drug dealing turf. As the Times discovers, the sneakers on high may mean different things to different people:

Theories about the meaning of shoe-tossing are countless. It has been rumored to be a marker of gang or drug territory, but Detective Walter Burnes, a spokesman for the New York Police Department, said he never heard of someone using sneakers to publicize a drug corner. “I don’t think it’s the sort of thing that people advertise by leaving a sign,” Detective Burnes said. People who live near shoe-lined wires speculate that it is a last-day-of-school tradition or a trophy collection of the shoes of mugging victims. Others said the ritual had no meaning beyond the fact that neighborhood youth were bored and not respectful. “I think it’s disgusting,” said Elizabeth Dean, 52, who lives almost under the utility line crossing Crotona Avenue.

What They Say Up There [NY Times]