Theoretically, maybe, but it's not very practical. You need to have very good ground truth (i.e. know exactly how wide that street is) and the spacecraft needs

Theoretically, maybe, but it's not very practical. You need to have very good ground truth (i.e. know exactly how wide that street is) and the spacecraft needs to be directly above Manhattan, otherwise tall buildings will obscure your calibration target. FWIW, I was on a calibration support team for the recently launched NPP satellite. The engineers and scientists go to great lengths to perform calibration and characterization before launch. Common calibration targets after launch: deep space, the moon, polar ice caps. Things we know a great deal about, have a clear view to, and don't change much.