This is more of a place where people wind up at the end of the day, or meet up before going to Midtown than it is an actual spot. There's not much in front except two subsequent sets of four stairs on pretty smooth grounds. There are several rails with kinks at the end spread out throughout the plaza accompanying the fours. One of the rails has been beaten down by years of bikers and skateboards so that the bottom of the rail is now as high as the top of the stairs, so you don't need much of an ollie to get over it. There are also several handicap ramps, which are about three feet high over which people do tricks into the mellow slope down the other side of them. Otherwise, all you're going to find is a couple of curbs, flatground and grates in the ground to gap over.
In the back, which is the more frequently skated part of the spots, besides an abundance of smooth asphalt flatground and pedestrians to dodge, you'll find a couple of manual pads and three street gaps. One of which is only about three feet wide from curb to curb, the other is about six feet, although you'll have to ollie up a curb in order to get sufficient speed, and the biggest one, onto the main manual pad of the spot is a good seven and a half feet of a gap.
During the day throughout warm seasons, it is nearly impossible to skate the front of this spot because of people either eating lunch, protesting wars, or being hipsters on the steps. After 9 P.M. or so it starts to get clearer, even though you'll still have to dodge pedestrians. During the winter, the place is pretty empty, although people still walk through. You can't skate the back of the spot during any season before 8 P.M. because there is a farmer's market that goes on there. There's also sporadic parts of the year, usually during peak skating seasons (late-spring and summer) where the Parks Department randomly gives out tickets and confiscates boards. So if they ever approach you, it would be in your interests to skate or run away.
The front portion of the spot is on 14th Street and Broadway, the back part is 17th Street and Broadway. Take the N, R, 4, 5, 6 or L to 14th Street-Union Square, and it is right outside.
