Citizen complaint of the day: Somebody deserves some coal in their stocking

I don't think it is a grille. I think the light makes it look like it has holes but it is solid.
I agree it isn't a coal chute. Too small

No. In Boston, at least, coal chutes were often in the sidewalk..

That indeed looks like a coal chute cover. You will see them at many older houses and buildings in some sections of the city.

In front of those houses, in fact. Delivery trucks (or large horse-wagons in earlier days) couldn't necessarily pass through back alleys. Lift the cover, slide or tip the coal into the chute, and let gravity do the work - filling a bin inside the basement.

That isn't a grille, by the way. It's a solid cover with a textured surface, sort of a waffle pattern. Lots of them are smooth.

Where they are no longer in use, they might be filled-in, but the few I've seen up close are just bricked up at the foundation wall.

Years ago, my work took me to a very nice house in the Back Bay - a 4 or 5 story right along the Comm Av Mall that was being renovated. Part of the scope of the project (adding fire sprinklers) required a new water service from the street. That task was made much easier by the presence of an old coal chute out front. Much less excavation - only had to dig far enough to connect from the main in the street and run to the existing chute, then run the rest of the pipe in the chute and chip out a couple of bricks at the foundation wall.

On another note, I'm not sure to which degree this is the city's responsibility. The request might be better phrased as "please lean on the homeowner to fix it or send DPW out to fix it and bill the homeowner to a fare-thee-well"