PalenQ

In the U S and also Europe many cities have athletic shoes thrown high over electric or phone wires along streets or crossing them - always seem cute to me - not sure why those locks have raised the hackles of so many - Paris has much worse problems like dogie doo on streets to be worried about IMO.

Kill joys!

colduphere

Things were better in the old days.

kerouac

We are having municipal elections across France tomorrow (second and final round next Sunday), and I am hoping that the moment the elections are finished, something can be done about the problem. Since municipal terms are for six years, it is the sort of measure that can be taken quickly with no risk from public opinion or media condemnation.

IMDonehere

Things were better in the old days.

Yes before combination locks.

Padraig

PalenQ wrote: "In the U S and also Europe many cities have athletic shoes thrown high over electric or phone wires along streets or crossing them - always seem cute to me ..."

You might think them less cute if you knew what they signify.

Michael

<i> always seem cute to me - not sure why those locks have raised the hackles of so many </i>

about as cute as carving a heart with your initials in a tree or tagging a building with your initials, but probably more destructive than either one.

gracejoan3

I think they are horrible!!

IMDonehere

PalenQ wrote: "In the U S and also Europe many cities have athletic shoes thrown high over electric or phone wires along streets or crossing them - always seem cute to me ..."

You might think them less cute if you knew what they signify.
___________________________

There are many urban myths about these. It started as an innocent exercise and remains that way for the most part. Do some research and you will see that 90% of still innocent. Take at a look at my 1:55 PM post and ask yourself does a professional sports team want to be associated with drugs and gangs? Well maybe in the UK they do.

Nikki

"Paris has much worse problems like dogie doo on streets to be worried about IMO."


On the dog dropping front, Paris has made much progress from the time around fifteen years ago that I had to leave my shoes outside on the balcony of my hotel at night. That problem has been tackled fairly successfully.

Padraig

I am confident that professional sports teams do not want to be associated with drugs and gangs (or, at least, don't want any associations to be seen by the public). I'm equally confident that the people who put the trainers there are not usually members of professional sports teams, or the sort of fan they would wish to encourage.

At a minimum, the presence of trainers suspended from overhead lines usually indicates a neighbourhood in which you should be vigilant.

PalenQ

So will those of you who wants these locks unlocked and tossed into the recycle bin - are you also making petitions up for the towns of Amsterdam, Utrecht, Antwerp and pracitcally any Dutch or Flemish town saying you want the bikes that for years have been stacked and locked to any bridge railing or fence in site - that these bother you and you think the city should take action.

Pictures of jumbles of bikes also adorn travel web sites as being cute - much like Fodor's editors saw them as eye-catching enough to highlight.

Yup I expect all of you who want the locks in Paris off to then turn your attention to Holland where bikes are parked willy-nilly everywhere and bridge railings are much much more affected than in Paris.

Then scrutinize every city in Europe and create petitions from Americans about how this and that is ruining YOUR city, etc.

IMDonehere

Padraig

American sports league spend a lot of money guarding against players betting, associating with known criminals (besides their own team mates), illegal drugs (as opposed to those prescribed by team doctors), and other illegal activities. Besides giving lectures before every season they each have hordes of ex-law enforcement officials (Including ex-FBI) snooping around.

If you remember that Michael Jordan played a year of minor league baseball. Well he is a compulsive gambler. And as the rumor goes they caught him doing something or other and instead of suspending him, he played minor league baseball for a team owned by his basketball team. This saved his and the league's reputation.

Brooklyn also has some of the toughest neighborhoods in the country and the Nets would be criticized harshly for encouraging anything illegal. Except the owner is one of the Russian oligarchs.

Michael

<i>where bikes are parked willy-nilly everywhere and bridge railings are much much more affected than in Paris.
</i>

I doubt it. Besides locks are permanent and unnecessary, whereas your counter example is a question of parking temporarily a means of transportation. Even if the wear and tear were the same, the reason for each activity would have to be weighed in terms of public utility.

StCirq

Bikes and cheap Chinese locks are two totally different issues. There's no analogy there whatsoever.

Padraig

Some basic physics: Put different types of metal in close proximity and in the presence of an electrolytic liquid (rainwater will do) and you have a galvanic cell. Corrosion happens in galvanic cells. Where the metals are stainless steel (as locks usually are) and cast iron (as bridges usually are) it is the cast iron that is corroded.

kerouac

Perhaps if someone just attached an electric cable to the Pont des Arts, it would create a better show than the twinkling Eiffel Tower.

PalenQ

Ah yeh the Eiffel Tower was also nearly torn down by complaints from folks about it being a blight on the ParisScape - ugliness or beauty of course is in the eye of the beholder.

Michael - those Amsterdam bikes are not parked temporarily - some obviously have been there for ages - it's the local bikers garage. And it is way way more a hindrance than the locks in Paris. -Some places it is even hard to walk thru - like some spots around the main train station.

PalenQ

How about writing Rome officials that those coins being tossed in the Trevi Fountain creates a blight - or that those fake gladiators right in front of the Colosseum are a blight - tell them to clean up their act.

where does it end?

Saraho

We just saw the locks on the Academia Bridge in Venice. They were ugly and rusty.

PalenQ

kerouac or other Parisians - are locals as upset about this as some American tourists?

curious - I would think there would be an outcry from locals if they view it as desecration?

curious as to sentiment which I assume is rather blase or something would have been done.

I say it is a local issue.