"Shoefiti," dangling sneakers: drugs, gangs or just pranks?

NEWARK, N.J. — George Williams has no doubt that the gray suede tennis shoes dangling from the telephone wire high above his house on 18th Avenue in Newark signify that drugs are sold there.

Not long ago they were.

"Those people don't live here anymore. Left in January," said Williams, who points to the bullet hole in his 1976 Pontiac Grand Prix and another below his neighbor's mailbox to prove how rugged the area is.

Knotted shoes or sneakers hanging from utility wires are common in Newark. What it signifies depends on whom you ask. Some say it's a sign drugs are being sold in the area. Others say it marks a gang's territory. Or maybe it's just the result of some kids having fun.

Whatever it means, Newark Councilman-at-large Carlos Gonzalez believes it isn't good. His recent unanimously approved resolution calls on local utilities to help the city take down the hanging footwear.

"To most people it means we are ready to deal," said Gonzalez, referring to drug sales. "Regardless, we want to keep our community as clean as possible. It's a quality of life issue."

It's also not an issue that's unique to Newark. Ed Kohler, a Minneapolis-based Internet marketing consultant, coined the term "shoefiti" in 2005 to describe shoes or sneakers hanging by their laces from telephone or power lines. The term is linked to graffiti because like the outdoor tags, they are considered either an artistic form of expression or markings of gangs and criminal activity. His Web site tracks shoefiti news.

"It's kind of a worldwide phenomena. You see it in New York, New Jersey and Los Angeles, but Australia and Poland also have a lot of shoefiti," said Kohler.

Snopes.com, a Web site that debunks urban legends, has a long list of suggested meanings for the practice of hanging shoes from wires. Some say it's a sign of kids being taunted by bullies, an effort to increase wire visibility for low-flying aircraft or even a military ritual signaling the completion of basic training or a military career.

Kohler has heard most of those explanations and adds one of his own: people just having fun. What people think the shoes mean is often based on location, he said.

"You might see a soccer team throw it up on a line and it's a form of memorial or hazing, obviously not drug dealing. If you go into tougher areas of town and see the shoes overhead it's a consensus urban legend that the shoes have something to do with drug dealing," said Kohler.

Newark already makes an effort to take the shoes down. Former police director Anthony Ambrose had officers go up in cherry-pickers to remove the shoes from overhead wires.

Melvin Waldrop, acting director of Neighborhood Services, said his goal is to take the shoes down before he gets a call from residents. Crews are ordered to take note of shoes hanging from wires while out working in the neighborhoods. The tree unit goes up in cherry-pickers every week to snag the discarded footgear.

On one Friday in August, the tree crew made 11 stops spanning the length of the city.

"My understanding is the sneakers represent the marking of gang territory or areas where drugs will be sold. As far as I'm concerned it's a blight on the community," said Waldrop.

What counts most is how the community feels about the shoes.

"If the perception is people associate it with blight, it's got to come down because people will feel less safe," said Kohler.

Verizon doesn't take the shoe issue as seriously as Waldrop. Rich Young, a spokesman, said the shoes are taken down if they are causing problems with the network, if they get a complaint or if a technician just happens to be working near an airborne pair.

"In general we do not send out technicians on patrol looking for sneakers," said Young. "This is a problem all over the state. We would need a small army of technicians dedicated to shoe removal."

As for the shoes being related to gangs or drugs, Young said he's skeptical: "Statewide and around the country that seems to be more a myth than reality."

For Fernando Morris, a public health representative, there's no question about the meaning of a pair of dusty black sneaker boots hanging from a telephone line near South 20th Street just off Clinton Avenue. The boots hang within sight of the Irvington border, a go-go bar and the University of Medicine and Dentistry's mobile HIV testing unit.

"It's a mark for territory. Drugs and gangs," said Morris, who is known in the area as "Papi."

"This is a place where we get a lot of positive tests because of the prostitution," he said last week while standing in the doorway of his mobile health outreach center. "That's what they do for the drug money. That's why you see the shoes."