[Alberta's Child]

They probably only use them in Manhattan -- in the Midtown and Lower Manhattan areas. Those are the areas of the city where almost every building goes right up to the edge of the sidewalk and there is no room to put any snow if there's more than 6-8 inches of accumulation.

A bigger problem for NYC with this storm is that we're supposed to get some very cold temperatures for a while afterward. This means snow won't melt very soon, and one of the top priorities after the streets are plowed is to have fire hydrants dug out of snowdrifts. That usually takes several days under the best conditions.

[DJ MacWoW]

Forgot about the fire hydrants. Haven’t lived in a city for awhile. A large snowfall can be very dangerous in high population areas. People simply don’t realize what NYC is like.