Here’s What’s Happening (in order of appearance):

Tree Removal & Mulchfest / MCB4 Full Board Meeting / Lights on the Cobbles / 

Christmas Tree Removal (Weekly) and Mulchfest (NYC Parks Locations Through January 11 | Christmas. New Year’s Eve. Three Kings Day. The Super Bowl. Has your merry and bright holiday tree become the clingy houseguest who won’t leave? The perfect time to part ways comes once a week, on your NYC Department of Sanitation compost and recycling pickup day. No need to wrap it in a plastic bag–just remove all decorations, ornaments, and stands (with artificial trees. remove the metal base and trunk and place those parts with other metal recycling materials). For more info, click here.

Want to take a more proactive approach? Through January 11, bring trees and wreaths to a designated NYC Parks Mulchfest site–where, organizers assure, “We’ll chip your tree into wood chips that we’ll use to nourish trees and make NYC even greener.” For more info, click here. Also note: 10am to 2pm on the weekend of January 11 and 12, NYC Parks’ Chipping Weekend invites you to “Bring your tree to a chipping site to take home a tree-mento! Get your tree chipped and receive your very own bag of mulch to use in your backyard or to make a winter bed for a street tree.” For more Mulchfest and Chipping info, click here.

The Full Board Meeting of Manhattan Community Board 4 (MCB4): Wednesday, January 7, 6:30pm Online via Zoom & YouTube and In-Person at Pier 57 Class Rooms (25 11th Ave. at W. 15th St.) | The entirety of MCB4’s membership meets monthly to discuss, and then vote on, letters generated by its committees. Upfront, time is set aside to hear from elected officials or their reps. Local residents and stakeholders have two chances to speak–via a Public Hearing whose topic is about to come before the board, and an anything-goes Public Session. Speakers are given two minutes–one if the evening’s agenda is particularly packed. (The agenda is posted the Friday before the meeting, and can be found here.)

Note: This marks the first full board meeting presided over by Leslie Boghosian-Murphy, the recently elected MCB4 Chair.

To attend the meeting via Zoom and sign up to speak during the Public Hearing and/or Public Session, click here.  (There’s also a sign-up sheet at the in-person venue.) The call-in number is 646-828-7666 (Webinar ID: 161 368 0437). Attend via livestream on MCB4’s YouTube channel–which also serves as the Forever Home, in archival form, of all MCB4 meetings.

Lights on the Cobbles / Along Ninth Ave. in the Meatpacking District through January 16 | Serving as a strong, Instagrammable rebuttal to the darkest of winter nights, Lights on the Cobbles is the Meatpacking District’s open-air collection of immersive, high-design installations featuring super-sized snowpeople, festive lighting, and seasonal seating. Now in its fifth year, this 2025 iteration is presented by Baccarat, to celebrate its newly opened flagship boutique at 33 Ninth Avenue. Baccarat’s own contribution is a 15-foot, 84-light, 3,000-crystal pendant chandelier that sparkles and shines at Ninth Avenue and 14th Street through January 16. For more info about Lights on the Cobbles, click here. See below, several photos from 2025 “Cobbles” content.

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