Aw, c'mon.............this has been going on for ages in every type of neighborhood.
I remember kids doing it simply because it was a challenge. You think it's easy to do that? It's probably a badge of honor of sorts for some kid who stood in the middle of Anderson St in broad daylight (you can't see the wire at night), doing this repeatedly until he got it.
Of course, you could be right - some gang member may very well have lost his virginity to a drug dealer in Anderson Park and decided to celebrate the moment by taking off his sneakers, tying them together and trying repeatedly to throw them over a wire while standing on Anderson St in his socks.