Rich New York residents of the Upper East Side have accused New York's left-wing Mayor of leaving them stranded in the snow, and refusing the plough their streets because of their voting preferences.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio was accused on Twitter of punishing those who had not voted Democrat, and there were calls to reinstate his predecessor Michael Bloomberg.
“I can’t believe de Blasio could do this. He is putting everyone in danger,” 70-year-old Barbara Tamerin told the New York Post, saying she had to use snowshoes and ski poles to navigate the street. “What is he thinking? I can barely get around — and I’m on snowshoes!”
On the other side of town, resident's from de Blasio's former district of Brooklyn were much happier.
The city was inches deep in snow on Wednesday morning after a second snow storm.
De Blasio, who stood on an anti-poverty and anti-inequality platform, has repeatedly called for tax increases for the country's richest. He beat Bloomberg on a record margin, saying New York had become a "Tale Of Two Cities".
A city spokesman denied Manhattan had been left in the cold. John Doherty, the commissioner of the Sanitation Department said: “One of the problems was that the salt spreader in that area, the GPS system was not working. Traffic also created a big problem for us in that area.
"I think any of the reporters, or anybody who was in that area this afternoon were reporting, nothing is moving in the area."
At a morning news conference, de Blasio insisted “I don’t think anyone was caught off-guard [by the weather].”