Spots: Midtown Manhattan — Chelsea, Hell’s Kitchen & Midtown West

Update – May 2, 2011: The entire west side of the plaza is blocked off and under construction, and the entire eastern portion of it is an extension of the restaurant. There’s essentially nothing left to skate here anymore.

Update – October 11, 2010: The adjacent restaurant set up an outdoor seating area that takes up the front of the manual pad. The manager must have figured his patrons enjoy looking at grim, neglected marble structures, and the crackheads that sleep between their crevices. Set-ups like this are typically semi-permannent, in that they are left out for certain seasons, but taken in for others, so this may become a winter-time only spot, at least as long as the restaurant is there.

Spot: Penn Plaza is home to one of the more recognizable manual pads to be found in New York. Rolling off a two-foot wide ledge that is around thirty feet in length, the manual pad is approximately a foot-and-a-half in height, and extends for maybe fifteen feet until it drops off at the end. The drop at the end is three-and-a-half feet high. The entire top portion is made out of marble, which may occasionally grow to be a nuisance due to the fact that it gets slippery.

There are some assorted stair sets throughout the park as well, in addition to some crusty ledges that are rather useless because they have sustained years of skateboard and bike peg damage, but the manual pad is the real attraction here. The only other occasionally-skated obstacle in the spot is a gap off a narrow ledge, over five-feet of foliage, down a seven foot drop that Reynolds kickflipped in a Baker tour video back in the early-2000s.

Bust — ♦♦♦ / Half-and-half: Before 6 P.M., it is impossible to skate here because of people eating lunch or sitting around the spot discussing job prospects and their kids. Afterwards, you chances of getting kicked out are good, but not guaranteed. They close the place off with a thin rope at the top of the steps after 9 P.M. because the park is a major crackhead hangout (“See if you can make it over this two-foot high rope you pesky crack addicts!”) so that would be the best time to go because there are no other people in the park.

Location: 34th Street, in between Eighth Avenue and Seventh Avenue (closer to Eighth, though.) Take the A, C or E train to 34th Street–Penn Station, and skate half a block east on 34th Street. The spot is across the street from the Wendy’s on the south side of 34th Street.

Pictures (Click to Enlarge):