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ian(conker)
Visited New York in 2019, the before times, saw many cargos mostly long tails with bolted on assistance (rear wheel or under BB hanging jobs), biggest user group wasn't trendy mess life people, wasn't families (visited many wealthy neighbour hoods and saw many e cargo), food couriers, and wasn't big 3 letter aconym courier services using up their grant funding.
It was the trades. Hundreds and hundreds of them, more if you looked inside doorways of buildings. I imagine their big heavy tools live on the job site throughout the course of a project, the hand tools and small items they ride back and forwards with daily (as might do other jobs before/after main work project), some had saw tables/router tables built into their long tails. Others just seemed to be dragging any old pair of wheels strapped onto some timber stock (saw an entire 3m long kitchen worksurface being dragged this way).
Most bulky materials are delivered to site, so no real need for a van, and the cost of getting a van onto the island is pretty high, then parking is cripping, 20-35 USD an hour is normal.
Would absolutely love to see more trades using cargo bikes, and you'd be surprised how small of a bike you can get away with. Its not often you need to move full size step ladders, and bulk materials, often its just your hand tools (10-40kg) and small consumables for the day (papers/plastics/paints/tape, lots of tape).