By Gus Saltonstall
Broadway malls throughout the Upper West Side and Morningside Heights will be lit up beginning this week.
The Broadway Mall Association will host its annual Winter Lighting Ceremony in Verdi Square at 73rd Street and Broadway on Tuesday at 5 p.m. There will be live performances by the Reaching Arts Choir and Fordham Lincoln Center’s A capella group.
Lights will be put up in the Broadway medians from West 70th to West 168th streets.
This year’s rendition of the event is sponsored by Zabar’s in honor of its 90th anniversary, which will be marked with special orange and white lights on the malls between West 78th and 82nd streets.
“The winter lighting ceremony highlights our dedication to beautifying the malls,” Bob Herrmann, the chairman of the Broadway Mall Association, said in a news release. “It’s an opportunity to bring our community together and celebrate the progress we’ve made in creating a greener, more sustainable Broadway.”
Along with the holiday season, the lighting ceremony is also a celebration of the ongoing native plant restoration of the Broadway malls. The organization’s restoration work within the Broadway malls in the past year unlocked additional New York state and city funds to match a previous private donation that will ensure additional restorations over the next three years.
The Broadway Mall Association is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the upkeep of the Broadway malls through art, horticulture, and community engagement.
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