Did you know that there is a band called SHOEFITI? (also on Facebook). They’re based in Paris. Check em out.

And I found that there was actually a lot going on. Children played on handmade, wooden swings and slides that had been deliberately left in ‘common areas’ of the sidewalk. Shoes hung from their own laces on electrical wires. Students blasted 90’s jamz and gangsta rap from their backyards while gardening together. Colourful shrines for various deities stood proudly in front yards and merry-go-round horses were affixed in gardens and on roofs.

Eccentricity, as defined by shoefiti presence, may be appealing to some. What’s your take?

shoes over seymour looking west, originally uploaded by toddsieling.

Shoes hang from a powerline over Seymour street in downtown Vancouver. Some of North America’s most expensive real estate sits in the background only blocks away.

We bought a home in Bay Area. CA last May. Police came to our neighbors home last month and arrested a few people for possession of drugs and under the influence of drugs. According to my other neighbors this was not the first time they were arrested. There was nothing in the seller disclosure about these drug dealers next door. What can we do about it. The sellers are in east coast.

One respondent points out in the answers that home buyers should be on the lookout for shoefiti (among other things) when considering neighborhoods for home purchases:

9) Shoes hanging on power and telephone lines. Yes, just a “prank”; but too much of that indicates the neighbors don’t care, and it is a “seller” location indication. You can modify a pruning cutter to be able to cut the shoe laces to remove such items, and tell the neighbors as you are doing it that you are removing the shoe-cams to replace the batteries. After a while, they will start believing there actually are cameras watching the illegal activity in the middle of the street.

What do you think? Does shoefiti influence property values? It seems like signs that make people think drugs are being sold in the area wouldn’t have a positive influence on prices, unless drug buyers are looking to relocate.

Sneaker Tossing Powerlines May 05, 20101-3, originally uploaded by stevendepolo.

A pair of Puma sneakers swing from a powerline on a clear day in Grand Rapids, Michigan on May 05, 2010.

Hanging shoes, originally uploaded by T6 Photo.

Shoes hang above a Barcelona street in this photo from T6 Photo. For more shots from T6, visit t6pksphoto.com.

I thought the key turning point in the story was when Lizard’s focus shifts from his own discomfort seeing the shoes dangling from the wire to wondering how Miracle Boy felt about the shoes:

He figured everybody in the school saw those shoes. Everybody knew whose shoes those were. Lizard figured that Miracle Boy must see them every day on his way home. He wondered what Miracle Boy thought about that, his shoes hung up in the wires, on display like some kind of trophy…he wondered if Miracle Boy ever worried about those shoes. He took up watching Miracle Boy in school for signs of worry. (p. 5)

Shoefiti meets Graffiti in Northeast Minneapolis where a pair of spray paint cans have been tied together and tossed over a powerline.

shoefiti, originally uploaded by asianz.

Kensington Market in Toronto has been hit with shoefiti hanging below ominous clouds.

Blue and Red Shoes, originally uploaded by toddsieling.

A pair of blue and red shoes dangle from a powerline in Vancouver. Could this be a remnant of Olympic revelry?