As
I mentioned earlier, this morning I walked over to the Safeway at the Meadows Shopping Center on Baseline. This route took me across the pedestrian overpass at Sioux Drive, which goes over the busy Foothills Parkway.I noticed that the chain-link fencing encasing this walkway is now festooned with combination padlocks -- the kind you see on high-school lockers.
Now, there is a middle school nearby: the
Manhattan Middle School of Arts and Academics. I haven't ever been inside that school, but I assume they have lockers, and hanging locks on a bridge seems like a middle-school pastime. But I don't want to leap to conclusions.
So, can anyone shed some light on this:
What's the deal with the bike locks on the bridge? Who puts them there, and why?
I had mixed feelings about the locks when I saw them. On the one hand, I thought they were a cool bit of communal performance art. I can always appreciate weirdness.
On the other hand, when I was in fifth grade back in NJ, I got bullied a fair amount. One day I got jumped by three boys on the way home from school. They pulled me off my bike, ripped open my bookbag and scattered the contents, and tossed my bike lock high up into a sycamore tree -- where it remained until the tree was chopped down years later. So strictly based on my personal memory and with no evidence whatsoever, I wonder if these locks represent bully trophies?
Who knows? Certainly not me. But I'd love to learn more. Please comment!