In Montreal, I can count on the sidewalks being cleared well enough within 48 hours of a big storm and sort of cleared within 8h (< 2" snow, at least 16-20" wide path, basically one pass of the sidewalk plows.)
As I mentioned above, that's definitely not the case in the outer boroughs of New York (Manhattan in some cases too, depending on where you are, though I don't know that for certain).
There have been weeks at a time where I've had to walk in the street because the sidewalks were just inaccessible or sheets of ice, which makes proximity to the train station all the more important.
NYC gets a different kind of snow than Montreal. Plows just breeze through powder that hasn't been refrozen. Atlantic seaboard snow is a PITA to deal with.
There have been weeks at a time where I've had to walk in the street because the sidewalks were just inaccessible or sheets of ice, which makes proximity to the train station all the more important.