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Shoe flinging is the result of bored children. I watched a kid toss up his old shoes after getting a new pair.

From The Straight Dope:

"Just your everyday kid hijinks. It's as pointless as jamming gum in water fountains or throwing water balloons at cars. Just one of the things kids do."

I want to run out into the night throwing all my old shoes over lines in my neighborhood (Kenwood). The Dayton's would freak.

Finally, a way to include those unbelievably crazy folks on the MPLS Issues Forum on here. Man, those people are crazy.

Alexis, I think the introduction to the post on The Straight Dope is worth noting:

"Lacking a proper way to investigate it, I figured I might as well cast aside the pretense of science and post it to the Net"

A great brainstorming session, but no conclusions. I'm sure the example you cite does account for some of the shoes hanging from powerlines, but that doesn't mean they're all the result of hijinks. This also doesn't mean that ALL shoes correlate with nefarious activity.

taylor, I'm not crazy. Wow, isn't that such a crazily obvious thing for a crazy person to say? Love em, hate em, or dismiss em, the folks on the MPLS issues list are the kind of people who are crazy enough to run for elected positions, work for non-profits, or attempt to get to the bottom of issues that nag at them.

As usual, I'm in the middle about this.

The Mpls Issues Forum (let's link to it, so people know what we're talking about) has too many blowhards on it, fer shure. There are so many completely random posts about the most esoteric topics -- I can see how someone might point their finger and laugh at the loonies.

On the other hand, it is also full of elected officials (and wannabe elected officials). So sometimes you'll hear comments directly from the source, which can be refreshing. And I actually think that some of the conversations that happen there can change public policy.

(There are days that I wish MNspeak took on more of the "serious political issues" around town, but it's oftentimes hard to frame them in a way that isn't boringly obvious. I'm personally so tired of the notion that "blog" is equatable to "political opinion" -- I think there's room for something more subtle. I believe in a "post-debate" world... whatever that means.)

One's opinion of the Mpls Issues Forum tends to correspond with one's opinion of local politicians -- ineffectual busybodies or noble citizens? The answer is probably both.

You know, I was always told that this was an urban myth. The links presented here seem to detail that, too:

http://urbanlegends.about.com/cs/factoids/a/sneakers.htm

Oh, I'm sure it started as something more subversive. I remember hearing back in the 90s that it was a sign of a gangsta getting killed in a gang shooting. Kids just wanna be tough little gangstas.

For many reasons, I can't imagine hanging shoes on a powerline would signify gansters being shot. The best reason tho, is that someone being shot is pretty much the best sign out there -- you don't really need to advertise that one too much; people tend to talk about that sort of thing. But I have a novel idea, Ed, why don't you just ask some kids on the street . . .

The real reason I'm writing tho is because "whatever that means" just doesn't cut it Rex. Care to expound on post-debate world ? I'm intrigued.