. I gotta wonder what people do in places where they get ten times that.

I suspect they have more snowplows and such, and a routine. Also, maybe they aren't as fussy about potentially damaging trees with salt, so that they spread salt making the stuff melt rather than just sprinkling split over everything. I actually suspect that the snow clearing service of our building is using salt illegally, because yesterday afternoon the pavement in front of our house was almost completely snow free and stayed that way while it was snowing and there were at least five centimeters of snow everywhere else. No way that happens just with sand or grit.