Down & Out in [Downtown] New York City — An XL Update of Demoralizing #spotchecks

That swath of street from Blubba, through the Banks, onto Water Street and into Battery Park is something like the Vegas strip for New York skate spots. If you’ve taken advantage of these recent warm days and hit downtown, you have noticed there is substantially less to skate at the strip’s southern end in 2024.

Let us start from the bottom and head up.

The Battery Park slanted ledges are done. Obviously those silver rail things nearby have been under construction for a while now, but that construction now extended into the most oft-skated section. Anything that was skateable in this portion of the park except the short out ledges is fenced off and being demolished.

More »

Diamond Plated Edition

Several months ago, the G Man spoke of an insane endeavor, in which he intended to film a video part exclusively on Crosby Street. Disregarding it as some sort of new age, alcohol-inspired pursuit at bringing notions of “abstract spots” to absurd new heights, I forgot about it. That is, until I actually noticed that an inordinate amount of footage from Crosby Street and it’s outlying areas of easy-to-skate-but-still-cool-looking spots had made its way to this website over the past year. The surge in skating this neighborhood probably correlates to this website’s roster becoming more fashionable in recent years, requiring a cobble-stoned proving ground best-suited for landing yourself in a Sartorialist post (or on Quartersnacks, its distant skateboard-related relative), and perhaps even meet an ambush of eggs, water, Heineken bottles, or paintballs (yes, rich people shoot paintballs apparently) from silk robe wearing residents disgruntled at their massive rent seeming less worthwhile when they hear your wheels raging across their diamond plated front steps.

This has been sitting around on a boredom-fueled Final Cut timeline for a couple weeks, so I figured it would make sense to throw it up on the site, even though it is practically all recycled footage. February isn’t exactly a month known for acquiring a ton of skate footage in New York, so recycled stuff that is thematically re-edited is the best we can do for now. After all, it is fashion week, and what’s more fashionable than an all SoHo skate clip?

As a bonus, the geographic restrictions on this clip are so intense, that the classic Quartersnacks spot-that-isn’t-a-spot, the Crosby Garage, was left out because it is north of Houston Street. Dedicated to the G Man and his endless dedication in skating ridiculous spots amidst the most fashionable area in Manhattan.