Holiday Tree Recycling: Begins January 3-17. The Chicago Department of Streets and Sanitation, in partnership with the Chicago Park District, is hosting its annual Holiday Tree Recycling Program at 27 locations throughout the city.  Chicago residents are welcome to drop off their natural holiday trees inside the designated tree recycling corral at each location. Please remove all tinsel, lights, ornaments, tree stands, and plastic bags from your tree before placing it in the corral.

Click here to find a location near you.

This year, Chicago will host a live broadcast of “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve,” with a midnight countdown and free, public event along the Chicago River. Road closures will start on Monday, December 29, at 10:00 am on Franklin St from Lake St to Upper W Wacker Dr.

Then, on Wednesday, December 31, the Orleans St bridge and Upper Wacker from Lake St to Wells St will close at 10:00 am. Street closures will go into effect on the following bridges on Wednesday, December 31 at 11:30 pm:

• Dearborn St Bridge
• Clark St Bridge
• LaSalle St Bridge
• Wabash St Bridge
• Columbus Dr Bridge

This event is free and open to the public, with no ticket registration required. Event entrances located on Wacker Dr at the corner of Lake St and Wells St will open at 5 p.m. Performances from Chance the Rapper and other Chicago acts will take place throughout the night. To learn more information, you can view the event details here.

For a full list of road closures and the event schedule, please see below.

Serve as a Poll Worker for the March 17th, 2026 Primary
The Chicago Board of Elections is seeking poll workers for the Primary on March 17th, 2026, including bilingual election judges who speak Spanish, Chinese, Hindi, Polish, Korean, and Tagalog.

To learn more and apply, please visit the Board of Elections website.

Chicago residents are once again encouraged to create innovative snowplow names and submit them below by January 10, 2026. At the end of the contest, the Department of Streets and Sanitation will pick the top six names, and those names will represent one snowplow in each of the City’s six snow districts.

Click here to submit a name.

The  27th Ward Town Hall will take place on December 16th at 6 PM, hosted at Malcolm X College. This event will feature important discussions on Healthcare, Budget, and Traffic, topics that directly impact our residents and community partners.

Joining the meeting is an insightful group of speakers, including the Alderman, and:

• Cheron Massonburg, Chief Program Officer, Breakthrough (Healthcare)
• Morgan Elise Johnson, Co-Founder, The TRiiBE (Budget)
• Jung Yoon, Chief of Policy, Mayor’s Office (Budget)
• Craig Turner, Acting Commissioner, CDOT (Traffic)

All are welcome!

Location:  Rosecrance Behavioral Health at 320 W. Ohio Street – Suite 405E

Toy Gifting at Seward Park Fieldhouse, 375 W Elm, 2 – 4 pm followed by a outside tree lighting

With snow expected soon, we would like to remind all residents of the winter weather parking restrictions that run from December 1 – April 1, 3am – 7am daily. If you see a posted sign that says “No Parking” between 3am and 7am, that means that the winter overnight parking ban is in effect on this street, whether snow is present or not. Violating vehicles could be ticketed or towed.  More information on these “No Parking” signs can be found HERE.

Separately, the city also posts signage for designated “Snow Routes.” At the curb lane where this signage is posted, parking is only prohibited when over 2” of snow is present.

Visit the City of Chicago’s winter snow parking restrictions page to learn more. Chicagoans can visit chicagoshovels.org for a live snowplow tracker and other information.