R.I.P. To The 12th Best Spot In The Financial District

This place — whatever you called it — got knobbed.

The neighbors from the adjacent roof threw marshmallows at us the second or third time we ever skated here, so it got dubbed “Marshmallow Ledges” on the spots page — though nobody ever called it that. It was “those wooden ledges on the sidewalk over by World Trade with the kinked metal bench before it.” The park was part of a W Hotel, except what a boring thing to name even a boring spot after.

In an area full of remarkable destination spots that grace every “Trip to New York!” video, we wound up at this unremarkable one quite a lot. There were eleven better spots within a few blocks of it, and those eleven were all busts. For whatever reason, we always got time here. This place was most often used as a hideout when someone was trying a trick at Zuccotti (which, by the way, had its knob-job recently re-done) and needed to get out of sight until the guard went back inside. It was also a safe space to grasp for motivation when you had emphatically been booted from all surrounding spots in 40 minutes. The defeatedness of the day is palpable in any footage filmed here: you might as well get something, and at least one of your asshole friends didn’t suggest you film him try a trick at Rector Street…

There will be no photo show commemorating this bad spot. No secret society of de-knobbers is planning a heist to liberate it. The history books won’t remember this sliver of a New York skate spot that resembled a faceless mall food court, but we will always honor its legacy of giving us a shot at street skating in the Financial District when no one else would. (+ that time we got stuck skating there waiting for the DANY premiere to open before realizing that drinking at the Bill’s Burgers across the street was a far better use of a July night.)

Until then, the top lip of the bench unlocked by Connor Champion remains unknobbed for further unlocking.