Why there are shoes in the streets

When I first got to San Francisco, I stayed downtown for a couple of days. Between all the people watching, ice cream eating and apartment looking I spent the first week doing, I one day spotted something that has stayed on my mind since then.

Under a lamppost near the hotel I stayed on, lay several pairs of shoes. It was both women’s and men’s shoes, all of them in different styles and sizes. Questions popped up in my mind – why were there shoes laying like that on the street? Were people in this town simply to lazy to throw their garbage in the trashcans? Was this some kind of contemporary art project that I didn’t quite get?

I spotted these shoes in a corner of a street in Castro.

I spotted these shoes in the corner of a street in Castro.

Well, later that week I learnt that all my assumptions had been wrong. I was walking down the crowded Powell Street next to Union Square, when I saw a man picking up a shoe that lay under a lamppost. The man, who was wearing tattered clothes and held a cup with coins, held up the shoe and looked under it to check the size.

And then I realized it. People weren’t placing their shoes under lampposts or besides trashcans because they were lazy – they did it so that someone else who needed the shoes could have them. The man, whom I assume was homeless, broke up in a big smile when he saw that the shoes would fit him.

These weeks I have spotted shoes with no owner (yet) several places in the city. Sometimes it’s a whole bunch of shoes, other times it’s just one pair. When I understood what this gesture meant and why the shoes were placed there, I was truly touched. This is a habit that people in San Francisco can, and should be, proud of!

These Adidas, spotted in Sunset, are ready to walk with a new owner.

These Adidas’, spotted in Sunset, are ready for a walk with a new owner.

And by the way – my name is Lovise, I am from Norway and my major is journalism.

Lovise Gangnes
loviseig@gmail.com
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