Every city has these. Whether thrown over street lamps in a back alley or over the wires hanging above an intersection. So here’s ours:
I once understood this sort of artifact to be a remnant of a bullying act, but it would appear that across the United States, a pair of shoes hanging on high denotes several possible scenarios. Since L.A. is well-versed in gang activity, it wouldn’t be surprising that shoes hanging from a wire might indicate a series of related activity. Chief among them are these: sites at which drugs are sold, gang territory, the death of a member, advertisement of a local crack house or a place to buy heroin. In the case of a crack house, the shoes are known as “Crack Tennies” or if heroin, the shoes are a metaphor for the addictive nature of the drug, emphasizing that you can’t “walk away.” I would be surprised if the shoes above actually stood for any of the reasons I’ve mentioned, but in L.A., be prepared. A few weeks ago, Rapper Dolla was shot outside the the Beverly Center; a wealthy, high-trafficked, tourist-friendly mall that sits right outside the boundaries of Beverly Hills and West Hollywood.
NO SAINTS IN L.A. 