The New York City Inline Skating Guide
Where to Skate: Manhattan South

• Hudson River Park
• Downtown
• Greenwich Village and East Village
• Midtown

Hudson River Park

A great place to skate is the bike/skate/ped path running alongside West St. and the Hudson River north, starting from Battery Park, passing Battery Park City and the World Trade Center site, entering Hudson River Park at Chambers St., passing the Chelsea Piers complex in the 20s and then the Intrepid Air/Space Museum, and then finally linking with the promenade in Riverside Park around 65th St. The park also includes a skatepark at 30th St. near the heliport. (Note: As construction of the Freedom Tower and reconstruction of the WTC complex gets serious, the section of the bikepath between Liberty St. and Vesey St. has been torn back up and you'll have to skate on the sidewalk in that area.)

Often called the West Side Bikepath until the late 1990s, the bulk of the path is now part of Hudson River Park, the strip of shoreline plus all the piers from Chambers St., on the north side of Battery Park City, up to 59th St. Like all New York public works projects, the park has seen and will continue to see its share of political wrangling, but construction has made significant progress, and many portions of the park are complete.

One part that is essentially complete is the bikepath. The path is double width (for north and south travel), and runs along the street side of the park. In many places, there are planted dividers between the path and the highway and between the path and the waterfront promenade. The asphalt is generally super sa-moooth, having been laid down during 1999-2002. Except for a couple places, lighting is generally pretty good for skating at night.

As you can imagine, the path usually sees a lot of activity on weekend afternoons from skaters, cyclists and joggers, and traffic is both ways, so please keep your head screwed on when skating at that time. Additionally, pay attention for people who want to pass you from behind. A lot of skaters strap on their headphones and skate along sedately, totally oblivious to any traffic jam of cyclists and skaters that might be building up behind them.

Aside from possible congestion, the only problems with the path are the reflective tape put down to mark pedestrian access across the path, as it can be pretty slick and awkward to skate on if you have any speed. Additionally, the paving is brick around many of these access points, especially in the north, and can be very awkward to skate on going faster than a crawl.

This pedestrian access marking problem points out another problem, that certain sections of the path see a lot of pedestrians. Possibly the busiest are the block in front of the Winter Garden (across the street from the WTC site) and the area around Pier 40 (i.e., between Houston and Christopher Sts.); the former is of course a popular tourist area and the latter seems to be an incredibly popular spot for people to hang out in the evening, and into the night on weekends. Additionally, there can be vehicular cross-traffic problems at a number of locations, including the Pier 40 parking garage, the Chelsea Piers complex, the ferry dock near 35th St., and the USS Intrepid museum. The area from 35th up to 55th Sts. seems to be especially problematic.

A few of the piers sticking out into the Hudson River are open to pedestrian access. The asphalt on most of them is often quite messed up and unskateable, but some are okay. The concrete pier leading out to the Holland Tunnel ventilation tower should be okay for a slow scenic roll when it's open.

Downtown (Below Houston St.)

Battery Park City:
In addition to the ten-block section of the bikepath extending south out of Hudson River Park, Battery Park City also features a riverside promenade which has been a popular venue for recreational skaters. The promenade connects to the main bikepath on the back side of Stuyvesant High School at Chambers St., and its southern end is a moment's roll from Battery Park.

BPC Esplenade near the mercantile exchange

Roughly speaking, the area inside BPC may be divided into three parts, Wagner Park, the central esplanade and Rockefeller Park, with the dividing points being the South Cove and North Cove. But in all three areas, there are signs indicating paths which are off-limits to skaters and cyclists, and rangers do enforce the regulations.

On the south end of Battery Park City, immediately adjacent to Battery Park, is Wagner Park, which includes the Holocaust Memorial and some very interesting statuary. Although the entire BPC waterfront is scenic, this may be the most scenic of all, offering a terrific view of the Statue of Liberty. However, the area is not terribly large and the signs indicating which areas are no-skating can be confusing. So pop in, take a look around, but don't expect to spend much time here.

North of Wagner Park, the many buildings in Battery Park City come almost to the river's edge, leaving only a pleasant esplanade along which to skate. The walkway is divided into two levels by trees and bushes, and skating, cycling, etc. are barred from the upper, inland path. (Again, park rangers and/or security guards will be more than happy to point this out should you err.) There also tend to be many sight-seers and romantic couples walking the esplanade, so while it's scenic, it's not particularly the best place to do much skating. However, near the north end of the central esplanade is the plaza between the North Cove and the Winter Garden (a huge atrium in one of the buildings of the World Financial Center), where things are bit more wide-open, although it can still be crowded with pedestrians on nice days.

Right next to the mercantile exchange building (a very congested spot due to the ferry landing also located here), the riverside esplanade continues into Nelson Rockefeller Park, probably the best section of Battery Park City for skating as it is larger, is more wide open and probably has somewhat fewer pedestrians. The only problem is that there do tend to be a lot of kids running around, so keep an eye out for knee-high, random missiles.

The stairs at the north end of Rockefeller Park make some good bashing, but while aggressive skaters have been seen doing so, it's a no-no. There're often some park security folks wandering around in little white trucks, and whenever they get to the steps, they chase away anybody they catch skating on them. Periodically, they get tough about it and may even try to confiscate skates.

Several potential points of conflict between pedestrians, cyclists and skaters were mentioned above. BPC authorities became concerned enough about this that they adopted a preliminary plan in early 1997 for dealing with it. A copy can can be found on the the Central Park Skate Patrol website.

Battery Park:
By the way, most of the paths in Battery Park are pretty smooth, but the large number of tourists passing through here on the way to the Statue of Liberty or Ellis Island ferries makes skating here during the day a bad idea. It's nicer during the evening.

East River Bikepath:
There is a marked bikepath, separate from the street, which runs along the East River from the South Street Seaport to Montgomery Street, north of the Manhattan Bridge. It is parallel to South St., directly below the FDR, and lies between the parking area and the waterfront promenade. It's smooth, but this is prime tourist/pedestrian territory, so watch it along here.

Cherry St.:
There is an outdoor rollerhockey rink with some okay asphalt at Martin F. Tanahey Playground, located at Cherry and Market Sts. behind the New York Post's offices. However, I have heard some very negative comments about the safety of the neighborhood. It's hard for me to tell as I've never visited the rink except on night skates with at least 15 other people.

Dr. Sun Yat Sen Intermediate School (IS 131):
At the northeast corner of Canal and Chrystie Sts., right across Canal from the entrance to the Manhattan Bridge and immediately adjacent to Intermediate School 131, is what appears to be a paved-over football field. By this I mean that it is a paved area of about that size and dimensions and it has some small seating areas along the sides. The surface is in decent shape for skating, excepting a couple of major cracks. The lighting here is also good. Thus, this would seem to be a great place for a pick-up rollerhockey game or for wide-open skate tag. There also used to be markings painted along one side which seemed to indicate that someone was using the area to skate laps, but the field has since been re-painted and the markings are gone.

Immediately north of this "field" is the south end of Sara Delano Roosevelt Park, a collection of park benches, planters, etc., which look like they might make some okay grinding for aggro skaters.

Brooklyn Banks

Downtown Aggressive Skating:
Near the East River, directly underneath the Brooklyn Bridge by the intersection of St. James Place and Wagner Place, there is an area known as the Brooklyn Banks. There are some rails here plus a ramp-like area known as the Wall which are popular among aggro inliners, skateboarders and BMX bikers, despite the brick surfaces and the broken glass strewn liberally about. Police headquarters is two blocks away, but the area is fairly secluded so that it's perhaps not a great idea to skate here alone, especially after dark.

State Courthouse on Foley Square

Besides the Brooklyn Banks, there are numerous plazas in the downtown area which are skateable and are perfect for grinding, bashing, and rail slides. Perhaps the greatest of these is the rebuilt 30-step sequence on the front of the state courthouse on Foley Square (60 Centre St.). However, security guards are usually keeping an eye out for something to do and chasing off skaters does relieve their boredom.

Greenwich Village and East Village (Between Houston St. and 14th St.)

There are four marked north-south bike lanes in the Village area, two on the east side and two on the west.

On the east side, a lane runs up Lafayette St. from Spring St. to Astor Place, where it switches over to Fourth Ave. for a couple blocks on the way to its terminus at 14th St. near Union Square. Southward bound is a lane on Second Ave. from 14th St. down to Houston.

On the west side, a bike lane runs up Hudson St. from Spring St. to Eighth Ave.; it then switches over to Eighth Ave. for a couple blocks and terminates at 14th St. And on the westernmost edge of the Village is the new bikepath along West St. in Hudson River Park.

Washington Square Park:
The pavement in Washington Square Park was in generally poor shape the last time I passed through. This plus a usually high density of pedestrian traffic makes this a crummy place to go skating. Add to that the occasional efforts to clean up the park, which include ticketing skaters amongst such other activities as rousting the marijuana dealers.

Tompkins Square Park:
On the other hand, the paths in Tompkins Square Park (bordered by Avenues A and B and East 7th and 10th Sts.) were in terrific shape during my last visit. So, if you can find a time when pedestrian traffic is minimal, this would be a great place for newbies to do some learning. But only newbies; the park is otherwise too cramped for any serious skating.

On the north (10th St.) side of the park there are stickball and basketball courts. The former has an incredibly smooth surface, useful for even advanced skaters to practice their stuff. The latter used to be used by the roller basketball league during summer weekend mornings, but now seems to be used for weekday pick-up rollerhockey.

The quality of the neighborhoods near Tompkins Square Park has had a mixed reputation, varying block to block, but in the 1990s it became progressively more gentrified. Today the biggest problem is probably the large number of restaurants and nightclubs in the area, especially to the west, which means a high traffic density on narrow and not well-lit streets.

East River Park:
This park stretches from Jackson St. south of the Williamsburg Bridge up to 15th St. and has a riverside promenade the whole way. But if you're thinking about skating here, I have two words of advice: Don't Bother.

Because of rotted pilings and other problems, the promenade was in terrible shape, and other parts of the park also needed significant work. Reconstruction of the park began in late 2001, and it appears that most work (e.g., renovating ballfields and the boathouse) has been completed. However, as of November 2007, the bulkeads holding up the riverside promenade have not yet restored, which means the promenade itself basically isn't there. At last word, the bulkheads and promenades were not expected to be complete until October 2008.

Midtown (Between 14th St. and 59th St.)

Several of the avenues in Midtown are generally good skating for those travelling north-south because of the bicycle/skating lanes which they sport on the left side of the street.

Night skating in Times Square.

For uptown travel, there is a bike lane on Sixth Ave. from 9th St. to 42nd St. Heading downtown, there is a bike lane which runs down Broadway from Columbus Circle to Union Square and another on Fifth Ave. from Madison Square to Washington Square. (As of mid 2004 the condition of Broadway north of 42nd St. was getting a bit dodgy, and there always seems to be a spot somewhere on the Fifth Ave. bikepath that's messed up.) See the Hudson River Park section above for details about the bikepath along the westernmost edge Midtown.

The skateability of the other Midtown avenues varies from year to year, depending on how recently they've been resurfaced, how bad the last winter has been, etc. And don't forget: Midtown is a high auto traffic area -- Webster's dictionary defines "gridlock" as Midtown at 5 p.m. on a weekday -- and the bike lanes usually disappear for a block where the avenues cross Broadway.

Union Square:
Union Square can be a fun place to skate after dark or on Sunday, when the greenmarket crowds are gone. The north side of the square, along 17th St., is a large, wide-open paved area where you'll often see newbies trying out their new wheels and more experienced skaters practicing dancing moves, maybe playing a pickup game of rollerhockey, or even doing some slaloming or ramp jumps. If you skate here on a Tuesday night, just be sure to stay out of the way of members of the Society for Creative Anachronism who are whacking at each other with swords. Not only is it a good idea to maintain good relations

NIBBL action at Union Square

with fellow park users, but those simulated broadswords they use can really hurt.

On the south side, along 14th St., there are a lot of shallow steps that are great for practicing stair bashes and curb grinds. There are some signs mounted on lamp posts on the south end of Union Square park that say, "No skateboarding no rollerblading [sic]", However, enforcement of whatever ban there might be seems to be episodic. There've been some evenings when I've been there for 30-45 minutes, watching skaters or boarders bashing and grinding away without any harassment. On one of these occasions there was even a cop who was coolly watching the scene but leaving the skaters alone. On the other hand, there are supposed to be park rangers who are not always so passive, and I have on occasion during daylight hours seen a Parks Dept. Bronco parked at the top of the steps, presumably with the idea that it would deter skating activity.

Robert Moses Playground:
Just across 42nd St. from the United Nations is Robert Moses Playground, a very smooth asphalt area which is painted for rollerhockey, with organized league play on weekends. The only deficiencies are that the playground has a slope (the south end is low) and that it's occasionally cluttered with twigs. Most of the gates are locked at night, but the one at the southwest corner is usually open around the clock.