OIB friend Ethan Book knows how to lace up for a political fight. The past few days, however, he’s been cleaning up the East Side, rescuing shoe tosses–and even a Teddy Bear–from telephone lines.
From Book’s Facebook page:
MORE CUTTING OF SNEAKERS FROM TELEPHONE LINES, ALSO A TEDDY BEAR !!
The weather was good this morning for another outing for cutting sneakers from telephone lines in Bridgeport!
I was able to get;
1 pair on Catherine Street near Hallett Avenue
1 pair at Milne Street near Hallett Avenue
2 pairs at East Washington Avenue across from Washington Park
2 pairs at intersection of Brooks Street and Berkshire Avenue and
1 Teddy Bear at corner of Shelton Street and Pembroke
I’m getting to the place that my extension tree limb cutter even with my step ladder isn’t quite enough to reach some of the higher hanging footware. If anyone has a pickup truck or a vehicle on which I can stand on the roof, I could get more of these eyesores !!
FOR ALL, HAVE A HAPPY AND BLESSED NEW YEAR
Ethan , Don’t forget the very top wires.
Jim, I haven’t forgotten them. Once again, do you have a truck? There is a man in The Hollow who has an eight-foot step ladder. That would work for many of the higher hanging objects.
I’m happy to help in this endeavor of a problem which has many ramifications but this really should be the responsibility of our municipal government. I’ve heard comments that this practice is (1) high school students celebrating graduation, (2) a gesture of people when they move away, (3) a boundary sign for gangs, and (4) a signal of where drugs can be purchased. I suspect that there is some truth in each. Simply for the first two, the practice degrades the community and contributes to attitudes of disregard for the community. For the last two, not actively removing the hanging sneakers is essentially condoning illegal activity whereas promptly removing them would tend to discourage illegal activity!
Start cheering. For removing eyesores, saving utility wires and promoting happiness while curbing illegal activity, I nominate Ethan Book as OIB blogger of the day.
These sneakers tell buyers that you can buy drugs in this area. It’s the small things that start better quality of life in the inner city. Congratulations to Ethan Book. These sneakers have been hanging for years all of the anti drug marchers march right under them and do NOTHING about it. Yet they talk about crime and quality of life and open strip clubs and after hours in the East End and wonder why crime increases. Council men and women OPEN YOUR EYES AND DO SOMETHING RATHER THAN COMPLAIN AND MARCH. Get out of your car, talk to the children, talk to the business owners, Pastors get out into the street . You come on Sundays, take a collection, drive Mercedes, Bmw’s and retreat back to the suburbs to put out a news press about crime in the inner city. How about taking a collection to create affordable housing for your parishoners , fight for improved lighting on many of the dark streets, start FREE after school programs and tutoring in your churches. If all the clergy in Bridgeport got together, they would number in the thousands. They could change this city overnight.
PLEASE RESPOND!!!
You said, “If all the clergy in Bridgeport got together, they would number in the thousands. They could change this city overnight,” I see that you know history, Martin Luther King Jr., Mother Teresa and Pope Francis couldn’t accomplish what you are suggesting. You mention open strip clubs and after hours in the East End, well I suggest that look at Facebook of a few of those clubs and you will see City Council members there. Sneakers, colors, graffiti and other markings show the territory of different gangs.
Ethan Book is an interesting. I commend him for his pro-active response to “sneakers in the sky.” I have to admit that I am absolutely paranoid about touching any wires from street poles. Anyway. Thank You,Ethan.
Your idea is commendable. I wouldn’t continue to do the though. Unless you have proper Personal Protection Equipment you are putting yourself at risk.
Another thing to consider is if you damage any of the utilities wires, no matter how dingy they look the respective utility will prosecute. All utilities fall under Homeland Security.
I thank the responders here for your support! For Eric, I appreciate your expressions of caution. I take various steps to mitigate risk including use of a fiberglass pole. Fiberglass doesn’t conduct electricity. Also, the possibility of damage to wires is negligible in that the most pressure that I place is no more than the pressure of a windy day!
First of all CC, the sneakers cut down were on the East Side not the East End. Secondly, it’s not the responsibility of the drug marchers to cut anything off the wires. Thirdly, sneakers on the wires have been a you can buy drugs here kind of thing in the minds of ignorant white people. Finally, I know quite a few ministers and not one drive a Mercedes of BMW, but I own two Benz’s and have never been a minister.
DD, the sneakers were cut in the East Side and the Hollow. I’ve been told by Blacks and Hispanics that the hanging sneakers are drug markers. I’ve also been told that the practice is of high school graduates celebrating and of people when they move away. I haven’t formed an opinion. I suspect that it’s part of all the above. In all respects, it’s degrading visually. It reflects attitudes of disrespect and disregard for our community.. And for those who even perceive that they are drug markers, it’s even more degrading and demoralizing. It is my opinion that the primary responsibility for removing these eyesores is with the municipality or the electric company!
It’s ironic that the preachers and their flocks live in those neighborhoods but not a one of ’em removes the shoes, covers the graffiti nor picks up the litter.
I ain’t marching anymore.
Let me tell you what is real and that’s colors and graffiti that tells which gang territory it is and trying to erase it will get somebody hurt.
Ron, if what you say is true and we fail to act to confront the problem because of fear of retaliation, then we’ve let the drug dealers have control of our community. The best way to deal with this is for various to get involved in confronting it!
Ethan, let’s be real here, it’s safer to mind your own business than to have you and your family threatened. Ethan, have tried calling the police because of a crime committed, well how long did it take for them to respond if they did respond? If they did respond what did they do and how long did it take?
Ron, the best approach is where various of the community work with public officials for developing a strategy. In my view, the primary responsibility on these lies with the public officials!
EB, I came to Bridgeport in 1968 and I’ve never heard of the you can but drugs here theory and I’m from the hood. This practice in the past primarily happened in the East Main St corridor area and later in the Hollow. I think it’s admirable what you are doing, my exception was to Concerned Citizen who thought their removal was the job of drug marchers or Bridgeport ministers which is idiotic.
Yeah DD. I grew up on south end when PQ apts were up and Marina Apts were there. Many a pair of pro kids and converse were on the wires. None to mark drug territories / selling zones. Maybe times have changed. The graffiti thing is real. EB be careful.
DD, thank you !!
I threw my old and worn Chuck Taylors up onto the wires too, for no reason other than everyone else did it. They were all over the north end where I lived until we moved to the west end in ’64, and I remember especially around Arctic Sports, the wires were full…AND…where they were $6.00 for the longest time, then, they raised the price to $8.00, and lots of kids protested in front! I never really thought much about why this happened, but anything goes these days! That photo of the cut down kicks showed they still had some life in ’em!
Ethan,
Your current venture of cutting down the ‘sneakers’ from the lower utility lines is certainly more visible and comprehensible by your Bridgeport neighbors than some of the verbal appeals against City or other governmental actions when addressing the City Council in past years. Glad that you are enjoying bringing property to ground and unclogging the view heavenward.
You have pursued a quality of life issue in a most simple and direct manner, while the Mayor employs Public Facility street paving without disclosing any organized or long term plan to the public when asked. And street cleaning operations are often timed to elections or other effect. Street paving and cleaning and sewer separation operations share this in common: if you keep your head and eyes down you will see what is going on; you have raised the eyes of the public for more thorough seeing and reporting what is ongoing in the City; not just what distractions and half-truths allow you to see. Time will tell.
When Ethan lived in Fairfield (Greenfield Hill) he used to cut all the Bruno Magli shoes too.
Jim, can you lend Ethan your super-long aluminum pole so he can reach the top wire?