by COREY KILGANNON HOMAGE is a new indoor skate spot opened by Michelle Sauer, 34, and Jose Portes, 36, a skateboarding couple whose skate shop, also named Homage, is a few blocks away, at 151 Smith Street. The shop is a big skater hangout and the couple offers lessons, but since it can be tough to find practice space in the winter, they opened this garage-like park at 615 Degraw Street, which has a suitable concrete floor and several wooden skateboard ramps wedged into it. The 2,500-square-foot space accommodates about 20 skaters; for now, it is open only to members who pay $100. Ms. Sauer, a former designer at Zoo York, the skateboard company, and at Burton, the snowboard company, said she and Mr. Portes planned to offer day-rate admission soon. “It’s hard for New Yorkers to skate in the winter,” Mr. Portes said. “So we wanted to set up a training facility because we want to see more pro skaters coming out of New YTHE BROOKLYN BANKS is a smooth, sloping, brick-paved plaza in the shadow of the Brooklyn Bridge, on the Manhattan side, that for decades has attracted skateboarders who love to zoom up and down its curves. Many consider it to be the Mecca of skateboarding on the East Coast, but the Banks will soon be closed off to make way for painting and construction on the bridge. Steve Rodriguez, the owner of 5boro Skateboards and a caretaker of the Banks, said officials have told him they plan to close the area this month. The painting will take perhaps six months, he said, and then part of the Banks would remain a staging area for equipment for at least four years. Mr. Rodriguez said he feared that could leave the Banks unskateable, and said he hoped officials would work with skaters for a solution. Kevin Youngman, 23, of New Brunswick, N.J., who was skating the Banks on Wednesday, said, “There’s so much history here; I can’t believe they would close this.” “New York is the pinnacle of city street skating, and this is the most famous spot,” he said. “I grew up watching videos of this place. Every famous skater who came through New York has skated here.” COREY KILGANNON