this post was submitted on 09 Apr 2025
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No Stupid Questions

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 16 hours ago

It's from the streamed clams they're having.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago

Ah yes, the classic New York fog machine. Turns out it’s not for dramatic effect—just the city’s 19th-century steam system still doing its thing. Who needs modern infrastructure when you’ve got built-in Gotham vibes?

[–] [email protected] 240 points 3 days ago (6 children)

Ooh. I know this one. Parts of NYC still use a steam heating system that was first designed in the late 1800's:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_City_steam_system

[–] [email protected] 22 points 3 days ago (7 children)

Thank you. There's so many people responding with unhelpful answers.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 days ago

They use a lot of steam for heating still

[–] [email protected] 59 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Steam from the steamed hams we're having

[–] [email protected] 22 points 3 days ago (1 children)

And you call them that even though they are obviously grilled?

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 days ago

excuse me for a minute

[–] [email protected] 34 points 2 days ago

That's the steam from the melting pot

[–] [email protected] 70 points 3 days ago (4 children)

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.

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 days ago (3 children)
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[–] [email protected] 166 points 3 days ago (1 children)

It’s not steam. It’s smoke from wood fired pizza ovens for the turtle men that live there. There was a cartoon documentary about them on tv a few years back.

[–] [email protected] 34 points 3 days ago (11 children)

I never thought of them eating artisan pizzas. I always figured they’d get some shitty dominos.

[–] [email protected] 47 points 3 days ago (3 children)

Ew, gross. They live in a sewer, but they're not animals.

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[–] [email protected] 56 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Believe it or not. Very old infrastructure in the city. Still runs on steam power.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 days ago (1 children)

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...

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (8 children)

I’m going to have to interject, NYC is the 11th [or 35th] largest city.

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[–] [email protected] 81 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

That's just from the ruins of Old New York that New York is built on top of. The mutants down there are a steampunk society.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

yo mama's farts

[–] [email protected] 26 points 2 days ago

There's a really good explanation here:

https://youtu.be/QRKzA8JlYBU

[–] [email protected] 99 points 3 days ago (2 children)

A new rat pope was elected.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 days ago (1 children)
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[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

You know how when rockets take off in Florida there's lots of smoke?

Yeah there's a tunnel that goes from Florida to New York that the smoke goes through to help heat up the New York streets. So anytime you see smoke in New York it's cause a rocket was recently shot up in Florida. ~~Technology~~ Infrastructure is incredible!

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 days ago

Hundred plus year old infrastructure.

[–] [email protected] 103 points 3 days ago (8 children)

The New York City steam system includes Con Edison's Steam Operations, a piped steam system which provides steam to large parts of Manhattan. Other smaller systems provide steam to New York University and Columbia University, and many individual buildings in New York City also have their own steam systems. The steam is used to heat and cool buildings and for cleaning and disinfecting. It is the largest such system in the world and has been in operation since 1882.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_City_steam_system

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 days ago

Volcano under the city

[–] [email protected] 44 points 3 days ago (6 children)

Some big cities originally heated their buildings by producing steam in one one centralized building and delivering it to large buildings thru pipes underground. The steam you see is from leaking pipes in this antiquated infrastructure. It's a very inefficient method if you ask me. Cities should offer these buildings low interest loans so they can update and be independent but they never take my advice

[–] [email protected] 16 points 3 days ago

District level heating is actually pretty efficient, some universities do the same thing on purpose to save on bills. Our relatively young city does it with the downtown skyscrapers for the same reason.

The other nice thing is that when you upgrade the heating system to be less carbon intensive, you can instantly have a ton of buildings all jump instantly to fewer emissions too.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 3 days ago (4 children)

Afaik it's not inefficient if the heating is done via fossil fuels as big furnaces (especially in the past, especially turbo-fan super-fine grind coal ones) are much more efficient than smol ones for individual buildings (even if the buildings are giant).

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[–] [email protected] 58 points 3 days ago (1 children)
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[–] [email protected] 15 points 3 days ago (1 children)
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[–] [email protected] 40 points 3 days ago (15 children)

The tubes are there to raise minor steam leaks above street level so they don't hinder visibility.

Another interesting underground quirk we have is our pneumatic tube mail system.

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[–] [email protected] 23 points 3 days ago (4 children)

That isn't steam, it's smoke. Smoke from the smoked hams we're having. Mmmm, smoked hams.

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 3 days ago

Teenage mutant ninja turtles barbeque

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