But here on the East Coast, there is another, unlikely, hot spot for this sport. According to professional skateboarders, Hartford has become another slice of heaven and, indeed, it is on Sundays that skaters come to the city to try their moves on the almost empty streets and office parks. Hartford, according to one top professional skateboarder, is now the best city to street skate in the United States.

"As soon as the town shuts down we all come in like it's a skate park," said Dan J. Dziuban, part owner of the Theory Skate Shops in southern Massachusetts. "Everybody makes it like a Saturday trip or a Sunday and you skate all day."

Improbable as it may seem, downtown Hartford, the conservative insurance capitol of the world, has emerged as this skateboarding destination, much to the amazement of city and tourism officials. While they are reluctant to give the skateboarders free rein in the city, they are also reluctant to shoo them away, figuring that another tourist draw in the struggling city is a good thing.

"We're the cutting edge?" mused a surprised H. Scott Phelps, president of the Greater Hartford Convention and Visitors Bureau. "If they're not damaging property and spending money in our community, that's what it's all about," he said, adding, "We're a friendly, accommodating city."

Skateboarders said that downtown Hartford's relative compactness, its corporate-scape of concrete ledges, plazas, and stairs, and its quiet Sunday streets are the reasons the city is attractive. Another reason is that the police give skateboarders leeway.

Although some skaters have been arrested for being on private property, Seamus Deegan, who works for a skateboarding company, said that compared to how the police treat skaters on the West Coast, "They're pretty lax in Hartford."

Growing in popularity, street skateboarding is for those who prefer the open challenges of urban topography over the corralled, suburban skate parks. Street skateboarders, however, sometimes skate on private property and damage the ledges and handrails they use, which is where the police come in. Sometimes eluding them is also part of the challenge. News of hot street spots is spread on Web sites, magazines and by word-of-mouth.

"Hartford's fun to skate," said the professional skakeboarder James Greco, 25, who lives in Hollywood. "Connecticut is the vortex of skateboarding." Mr. Greco, a New Haven native, said he helped hone his street skills in Hartford several years ago, skating "insane stuff" at the Hartford Civic Center and at New Ross County Wexford Park, a nearby city park called "Heaven" by skateboarders.

Mr. Greco's street legacy and that of the other Connecticut-bred professionals, Tim Upson, Donny Barley and Brian Anderson, who have skated in Hartford, have spun out a new generation of skateboarders.

"You can't have a pro career skating in a skate park," said Matt Thompson, 17, a skateboarder from Simsbury who skates in Hartford, quoting Mark Appleyard, a professional skateboarder. "You park in one spot and then skate around to a bunch of spots with your friends."

Mr. Thompson said he enjoyed the camaraderie among skateboarders, even the pros spotted in Hartford.

"Tim Upson's been seen here," said Dustin Walls, 15, of Bristol, one recent Sunday while trying to master the Hartford Civic Center's ledge on Trumbull Street. Mr. Walls had come for the day with several buddies, all piled into an older friend's Town and Country minivan. "I've seen Tony Trujillo here, too," Dustin said. "This is his favorite place."

Mr. Trujillo, named Skateboarder of the Year 2003 by Thrasher Magazine, which covers skateboarding, could not be reached for comment, but in a Skateboarder Magazine interview last year he said Hartford the best city to street skate in America. "Yeah, man," he said in the magazine. "We cruised around Hartford and there was a bunch of stuff to skate in front of office buildings."

The skill and thrill of street skating is the stuff of numerous videos, produced by national skateboard equipment manufacturers.

Without a penny to a marketing firm, Hartford's ledges, stairs, handrails and benches have starred in national skateboarding productions. Nearly every production shows "Heaven," which sits atop I-84, just north of the Civic Center.

"That's Hartford's 'Embarcadero,' " said Jefferson Pang, team manager for Zoo York, a skateboarding equipment company in New York City. Legendary among skateboarders, the Embarcadero is the San Francisco area where many street skating tricks evolved.

Hartford's star turn is due largely to the efforts of Eric Munday, 29, the owner of Skate Lair, an Enfield skateboarding shop. Mr. Munday has been determined to showcase Hartford and East Coast skaters.

"You don't have to move to California to get something going," said Mr. Munday, who used to skate Hartford every night.

Relying on friendships in the close-knit, national skateboarding community and his knowledge of Hartford's streets, Mr. Munday had persuaded several national companies to tape in Hartford.

"Erik Munday, he's our guide," Mr. Pang said. Zoo York, and other similar companies, sponsor teams of skateboarders, who tour the country, demonstrating their sponsor's equipment. Afterwards, teams street skate, their efforts taped for future videos and DVDs. "Hartford's got all the terrain that makes a good city," Mr. Pang said.

The videos influence skateboarders. "They really drive skateboarding," said Ryan Henry, Thrasher Magazine editor whose affiliate company also makes such productions. Skateboarders watch them repeatedly to learn new tricks. And, observed Mr. Henry, "They can make a place into a holy grail."

Part of Hartford's charm for skateboarders is its dramatic drop in activity on weekends and at night. Two years ago, Mr. Dziuban shot "Thesis," a video featuring Hartford. Mr. Deegan of 5boro, a New York skateboarding company, said he has taped tricks on Hartford's plazas at night, using a generator for light.

Many skateboarders skate Hartford on Sundays, although police report seeing skateboarders daily.

"Hartford's deceased on Sundays," said Adam Sullivan, 28, a sponsored skater and assistant editor of Transworld Skateboarding Business Magazine in California. Originally from Manchester, Mr. Sullivan has often skated in Hartford.

Hartford City Hall doesn't seem to mind the Sunday traffic. Upon learning of Hartford's skateboarding stature, Hartford Mayor Eddie Perez, in a prepared statement, said, "Although well-renowned skateboarders, as well as skateboarders from other towns, are skating in Hartford, preferably on Sunday, I hope they're spending money in our city."

Each Sunday, downtown security guards companies play "cat-and-mouse" with the skateboarders, who vary in age from pre-teen to late 20's.

The Phoenix Companies, whose ledges hold special favor with skateboarders, declined to comment on the issue. The Travelers Property Casualty Corporation, whose plaza's railings gleam with golden skate-stopping knobs, "is forced to prevent skateboarders from using our property," said Marlene Ibsen, a spokeswoman. "The reality is that if a skateboarder gets hurt or hurts someone on our property, we could be sued," she said, noting, it is an "exciting sport."

Over all, Civic Center security guards said the skateboarders are friendly. "They don't really give you a hard time," said Annette Paquette, an employee of Securitas, an East Hartford company, providing security at the Civic Center.

The police in Hartford said they try to balance the liability and property worries of downtown's old guard companies with the rights of the free-spirited skateboarders.

"For the most part, we don't have any real issues with the skateboarders," said Hartford Police Captain Michael J. Fallon, adding that police try to push skaters to use "Heaven." Recently, however, Captain Fallon said complaints from the city's insurers, ranging from scraped handrails to the removal of a railing, have risen. Businesses on Pratt Street, a narrow, canyon-like road that amplifies sound, also complain about the echoing noise from the skateboards' wheels.

Kevin Mack of Hartford, who works downtown for Hartford Proud and Beautiful, encounters skateboarders daily. He has a different perspective. "Don't you write anything bad about those kids," he said. "Skateboarding is just youth and exuberance."

For many communities, street skating may be a "double-edged sword," said John Lucero, owner of California-based Black Label Skateboards, noting that while street skating may damage property, it also generates revenue.

Workers at the McDonald's, Wendy's and Burger King in Hartford said it gets regular Sunday business from area skateboarders.

When the Black Label team visited Hartford several days last summer, Mr. Lucero spent about $500 a day to feed and lodge his eight skateboarders. Mr. Rodriguez said his team of 15 spent at least $1,000 per day during the team's two major summer tours to the Hartford area.

Mr. Rodriguez said Hartford could draw even more skaters. "The more skater friendly a city is," he said, "the more skaters it will attract."