It's the flooding problem most of all. I'm in one of the few Manhattan co-ops that still allows washing machines and dryers and it's a wonderful thing to have it in my apartment. But many landlords, co-op board and condos don't permit them because of the flooding.
A couple of my friends and I made hot ice for our school science fair. We used sodium acetate. This project won first place at my schools science fair!!! Materials: Stove. Pot. A spoon. A glass cup. and Sodium acetate (you can find it online or in certain heat packs). How to do it: You heat water in a pot and put the sodium acetate in the water.
Adding salt or even sugar causes normally stable ice to begin melting, either until the added substance is sufficiently diluted or the surrounding temperature lowers to the freezing point of the new solution. Convection currents of either air or water can also speed the rate at which ice melts.