They might be smoke testing the system, looking for leaks! Smoke is pumped into water pipe infrastructure and leaks out of potential cracks or undisclosed/illegal sources (such as a company dumping into the sewer system without disclosing it to the city). They do this so they can locate and fix these sources so the water remains uncontaminated by groundwater seepage.
Ooh. I know this one. Parts of NYC still use a steam heating system that was first designed in the late 1800’s:
You should tell this guy.
Thank you. There’s so many people responding with unhelpful answers.
Wow that’s neat
No, that’s heat.
Yeet the heat or beat the meat
Yeet the meat not the heat.
A new rat pope was elected.
I love how plausible this is
Praise Cheesus
Thank you, much a-brie-ciated.
That’s the steam from the melting pot
Dragons.
It’s the only explanation that fits
Steam from the steamed hams we’re having
And you call them that even though they are obviously grilled?
excuse me for a minute
I immediately thought of this tune for some reason.
That’s not smoke. It’s a space station.
That’s no moon, it’s… oh, wait… shit.
The CHUDs are having a BBQ. Guess the markets closed for the day.
I think it’s important, at this point, to differentiate between NYC CHUDs, and your common racist shitbag chud. NYC CHUDs are many things, but not racist dickbags.
I’m just referencing the movie, but if you think that there are not racists in NYC, you haven’t talk to enough New Yorkers.
Believe it or not. Very old infrastructure in the city. Still runs on steam power.
I swear I thought this answer was about as accurate as the one that said “dragons”.
How steampunk for probably the largest city in the world to use steam in this day and age? I love it…
I’m going to have to interject, NYC is the 11th [or 35th] largest city.
11th, OR 35th? Could you explain?
Or 3rd or 76th.
It depends on how you define the city, here’s my source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_cities
That list is from 2018
NYC didn’t grow any more populous since.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/14/nyregion/nyc-population-decline.html
I don’t know why they include the surrounding areas as part of the city population. The 5 boroughs is roughly 8 million people. If you live in jersey city, you shouldn’t be counted as part of nyc population
I don’t know why they care about population https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_cities_by_area clearly land is more important because land votes not people.
See it in Kansas City usually in the winter.
They outlawed chem trails so they had to change tactics.
Damn nobody likes a joke?
Old steam heating system. They vent it when they’re working on a section.
Side-note: surprised by all the fellow New Yorkers i’m seeing in this thread. I thought yous were still at the other place.
Yep. Detroit has this, too.
Yeah it’s common enough I figured most knew, but a few years ago I went ice skating at the bryant park rink with someone who refused to walk anywhere near the steam. They thought it was toxic and didn’t accept my explanation, so we had to walk an extra few blocks to get around the steam work. Shrug
I wonder if they could make it more efficient by running at a lower temperature and installing water source heat pumps in buildings. https://youtu.be/abGiNL9IT54
That’s a good idea! My understanding is that the old steam network is slated for decommission and replacement by this program, basically a large distributed geothermal heat pump network that also harvests from major heat producers like data centers and provides both heating and cooling.
It will end the era of the steamy-street Sin City aesthetic but should be many, many times more efficient than the old steam system. Phase-change thermal transfer in HVAC systems is nearing 400% efficiency, so 4 times more efficient than the theoretical limit of direct heating, because it only uses the energy necessary to move heat from one place to another rather than produce it, and it works for both heating and cooling.
Right now I believe they’re piloting the system in NYCHA buildings (public housing) of neighborhoods outside the old steam network, like Chelsea and Hell’s Kitchen, but supposedly the plan is to expand to the rest of Manhattan.
Edit: corrected coefficient of performance
The dragon underneath is starting to stirr.
