By . Associated  Press Reporter . and James  Nye . New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio admitted at a news conference on Wednesday that more could have been done to help residents living in the Upper East Side during Tuesday's snow storm . New York mayor Bill de Blasio acknowledged on Wednesday evening that there were flaws in his administrations response to the snowstorm which descended on the city on Tuesday causing transport chaos on the city’s roads. Facing one of the first flashpoints of his weeks-old tenure, de Blasio initially defended what he called a ‘coordinated, intense, citywide response’ to a storm he said caused a worse-than-expected headache when it ramped up at rush hour. De Blasio, who campaigned on closing the gaps between rich and poor city residents, at first rebuffed complaints that the effort had lagged on Manhattan's posh Upper East Side, saying ‘no one was treated differently.’ But he backtracked on Wednesday evening, saying he'd determined ‘more could have been done to serve the Upper East Side.’ Thirty more vehicles and nearly 40 more sanitation workers were sent to the area to finish the cleanup, de Blasio said in a statement that noted he still felt the citywide response, overall, ‘was well-executed.’ In a city where snow removal has proven a political hot potato, the flap was almost a mirror image of complaints about how de Blasio's predecessor, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, handled a 2010 blizzard. Scroll Down for Video: . Painful fall: A man falls on the ice and snow along 5th Avenue and 40th St in New York on Wednesday morning a full 24 hours after a huge storm began to dump up to one-foot of snow onto the city and the mayor, Bill de Blasio was criticized for his response . Dangerous: Two women fall on the ice and snow on . Wednesday morning on 5th Avenue in New York - a full 24hours after the . snowstorm that hit the city began to dump up to one feet of snow on the . city . The Mayor's Office tweeted this photo of de Blasio out and about in the Upper East Side on Wednesday . Bloomberg, who lives on the Upper East . Side, faced criticism that outer boroughs had gotten short shift from . plows. Brooklyn-dwelling de Blasio, then the city's public advocate, was . among the critics. This . time, de Blasio found himself being asked why some Upper East Side . avenues still were covered in snow when a Brooklyn thoroughfare was . plowed clear to the pavement. Pamela . Murphy Jennings' two children navigated snowy sections of tony Madison . and Park avenues to get to their public schools on the Upper East Side, . she said in an interview. ‘Children . have to walk to city bus stops and cross these streets to get here,’ she said. ‘Cars are sliding on roads. If there was any day to close . schools, this was the day.’ De . Blasio said officials made the right call in anticipating that streets . would be passable enough for students to get to school safely, adding . that his own teenage son had gone, if grouchily. Ouch: A man falls on the ice and snow along 5th Avenue on January 22, 2014 in New York after the northeastern US shivered amid heavy snowfall overnight on Tuesday . Slippery: This poor lady takes a tumble in the inclement weather conditions in Manhattan's Midtown on Wednesday morning after snow and ice left on the ground from Tuesday's snowstorm caused dangerous walking conditions for pedestrians . Whoa! This poor gentleman tumbled to the ground while crossing the street at 40th and 5th Avenue in Manhattan as the remnants of Tuesdays snowstorm stayed on the ground . But . the Department of Education said that Wednesday's attendance rate was . only 47.1 percent - far below the average daily attendance rate of about . 90 percent for the 1.1 million students who make up the nation's . largest public school system. Traffic and the storm's timetable complicated the clean-up, he and Sanitation Commissioner John Doherty said. The . storm arrived earlier than expected on Tuesday and intensified right . around the evening rush, making it difficult to plow and spread salt, . Doherty said. Citywide, . 100 percent of primary streets were plowed by 6 a.m. on Wednesday, along . with 90 percent or more of other streets, Doherty said. On . Wednesday morning Today show weatherman Al Roker had tore into de . Blasio's overnight response to the snowstorm which caused traffic chaos . across the Big Apple  - after the New York Mayor claimed the city was . caught by surprise. Venting . his frustration with the new administration, Roker, who is widely . respected as the nation's most trusted weather presenter, used this . morning's show to pour scorn on de Blasio's claim that the storm arrived . three hours earlier than expected. Tough night: New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio speaks at a news conference in Brooklyn during which he refuted claims he failed to prepare the city sufficiently for the snowstorm which hit on Tuesday . Mayor speaks from Brookyn: New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, speaks about snow removal during a news conference in the Brooklyn borough of New York, on Wednesday morning . 'They claimed it caught them off guard, that it came in early,' a clearly irate Roker exclaimed. 'No, no, no, it didn't! They should have been watching us!' Roker's . fury was followed by scores of people dangerously tumbling to the . ground on snow and ice covered streets more than 24-hours after the . snowstorm hit New York City. Roker . said that he feared that de Blasio, who has only been in office less . than a month, had made a huge mistake by not being on top of his . response to the storm. He . then made an ominous reference to former New York Mayor John Lindsay, . who never shook off his reaction to the February 1969 nor'easter which . left 14 people dead and 68 injured. 'Two Words Mr. Mayor....John Lindsay!' Lindsay . was seen to only care about how the snow plows dealt with Manhattan and . when he visited Queens a week after the storm - was told, 'Get away, . you bum', by a resident disgusted he had the gall to visit when there . was still snow on the ground. The team at NBC's Morning Joe were equally as incredulous as Al Roker. 'I have lived in this city for 35-years,' said host Joe Scarborough. 'And I have never seen such chaos.' Watch Video Here: . Streets not clear: Restauranteur Nello Balan having lunch outside his restaurant Nello with a friend in the middle of Tuesday's snow storm where he created what he called an Apres Ski Lodge on the streets of Madison Avenue . Clear: Residents reported that de Blasio's home neighborhood of Park Slope was largely snow free on the roads and sidewalks by mid-afternoon - unlike the Upper East Side . No snow plows? This map shows that snow plows . did not work on huge swathes of the Upper East Side yesterday afternoon - . a problem the city blamed on a faulty tracking device - as Mayor de . Blasio (right) smiles for the cameras as he cleans his own Brooklyn side . walk . Slow going: Traffic moves slowly on the ice and snow along  5th Avenue January 22, 2014 in New York. The northeastern US shivered amid heavy snowfall and far below average temperatures in a storm that grounded thousands of flights and triggered traffic chaos . Cleared: Snow covered streets are viewed in Brooklyn on the morning after a major winter storm blanketed much of New York City in 10 to 12 inches of snow on January 22, 2014 . Failed response: New York Mayor John Lindsay has . become notorious in the city for his poor handling of the 1969 blizzard . which claimed 14 lives .
New York mayor de Blasio has acknowledged that there were flaws in his administrations response to Tuesday's snowstorm .
After earlier defending his response, he backtracked and said 'more could have been done to serve the Upper East Side'
The mayor had been accused of class warfare by residents of the Upper East Side after snow was not promptly cleared .
The street the mayor lives on in Park Slope was cleared on Tuesday .
Today .
show weatherman Al Roker had strongly attacked the mayor's response to the snowstorm on Wednesday morning .
By . Associated  Press Reporter . and James  Nye . New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio admitted at a news conference on Wednesday that more could have been done to help residents living in the Upper East Side during Tuesday's snow storm . New York mayor Bill de Blasio acknowledged on Wednesday evening that there were flaws in his administrations response to the snowstorm which descended on the city on Tuesday causing transport chaos on the city’s roads. Facing one of the first flashpoints of his weeks-old tenure, de Blasio initially defended what he called a ‘coordinated, intense, citywide response’ to a storm he said caused a worse-than-expected headache when it ramped up at rush hour. De Blasio, who campaigned on closing the gaps between rich and poor city residents, at first rebuffed complaints that the effort had lagged on Manhattan's posh Upper East Side, saying ‘no one was treated differently.’ But he backtracked on Wednesday evening, saying he'd determined ‘more could have been done to serve the Upper East Side.’ Thirty more vehicles and nearly 40 more sanitation workers were sent to the area to finish the cleanup, de Blasio said in a statement that noted he still felt the citywide response, overall, ‘was well-executed.’ In a city where snow removal has proven a political hot potato, the flap was almost a mirror image of complaints about how de Blasio's predecessor, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, handled a 2010 blizzard. Scroll Down for Video: . Painful fall: A man falls on the ice and snow along 5th Avenue and 40th St in New York on Wednesday morning a full 24 hours after a huge storm began to dump up to one-foot of snow onto the city and the mayor, Bill de Blasio was criticized for his response . Dangerous: Two women fall on the ice and snow on . Wednesday morning on 5th Avenue in New York - a full 24hours after the . snowstorm that hit the city began to dump up to one feet of snow on the . city . The Mayor's Office tweeted this photo of de Blasio out and about in the Upper East Side on Wednesday . Bloomberg, who lives on the Upper East . Side, faced criticism that outer boroughs had gotten short shift from . plows. Brooklyn-dwelling de Blasio, then the city's public advocate, was . among the critics. This . time, de Blasio found himself being asked why some Upper East Side . avenues still were covered in snow when a Brooklyn thoroughfare was . plowed clear to the pavement. Pamela . Murphy Jennings' two children navigated snowy sections of tony Madison . and Park avenues to get to their public schools on the Upper East Side, . she said in an interview. ‘Children . have to walk to city bus stops and cross these streets to get here,’ she said. ‘Cars are sliding on roads. If there was any day to close . schools, this was the day.’ De . Blasio said officials made the right call in anticipating that streets . would be passable enough for students to get to school safely, adding . that his own teenage son had gone, if grouchily. Ouch: A man falls on the ice and snow along 5th Avenue on January 22, 2014 in New York after the northeastern US shivered amid heavy snowfall overnight on Tuesday . Slippery: This poor lady takes a tumble in the inclement weather conditions in Manhattan's Midtown on Wednesday morning after snow and ice left on the ground from Tuesday's snowstorm caused dangerous walking conditions for pedestrians . Whoa! This poor gentleman tumbled to the ground while crossing the street at 40th and 5th Avenue in Manhattan as the remnants of Tuesdays snowstorm stayed on the ground . But . the Department of Education said that Wednesday's attendance rate was . only 47.1 percent - far below the average daily attendance rate of about . 90 percent for the 1.1 million students who make up the nation's . largest public school system. Traffic and the storm's timetable complicated the clean-up, he and Sanitation Commissioner John Doherty said. The . storm arrived earlier than expected on Tuesday and intensified right . around the evening rush, making it difficult to plow and spread salt, . Doherty said. Citywide, . 100 percent of primary streets were plowed by 6 a.m. on Wednesday, along . with 90 percent or more of other streets, Doherty said. On . Wednesday morning Today show weatherman Al Roker had tore into de . Blasio's overnight response to the snowstorm which caused traffic chaos . across the Big Apple  - after the New York Mayor claimed the city was . caught by surprise. Venting . his frustration with the new administration, Roker, who is widely . respected as the nation's most trusted weather presenter, used this . morning's show to pour scorn on de Blasio's claim that the storm arrived . three hours earlier than expected. Tough night: New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio speaks at a news conference in Brooklyn during which he refuted claims he failed to prepare the city sufficiently for the snowstorm which hit on Tuesday . Mayor speaks from Brookyn: New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, speaks about snow removal during a news conference in the Brooklyn borough of New York, on Wednesday morning . 'They claimed it caught them off guard, that it came in early,' a clearly irate Roker exclaimed. 'No, no, no, it didn't! They should have been watching us!' Roker's . fury was followed by scores of people dangerously tumbling to the . ground on snow and ice covered streets more than 24-hours after the . snowstorm hit New York City. Roker . said that he feared that de Blasio, who has only been in office less . than a month, had made a huge mistake by not being on top of his . response to the storm. He . then made an ominous reference to former New York Mayor John Lindsay, . who never shook off his reaction to the February 1969 nor'easter which . left 14 people dead and 68 injured. 'Two Words Mr. Mayor....John Lindsay!' Lindsay . was seen to only care about how the snow plows dealt with Manhattan and . when he visited Queens a week after the storm - was told, 'Get away, . you bum', by a resident disgusted he had the gall to visit when there . was still snow on the ground. The team at NBC's Morning Joe were equally as incredulous as Al Roker. 'I have lived in this city for 35-years,' said host Joe Scarborough. 'And I have never seen such chaos.' Watch Video Here: . Streets not clear: Restauranteur Nello Balan having lunch outside his restaurant Nello with a friend in the middle of Tuesday's snow storm where he created what he called an Apres Ski Lodge on the streets of Madison Avenue . Clear: Residents reported that de Blasio's home neighborhood of Park Slope was largely snow free on the roads and sidewalks by mid-afternoon - unlike the Upper East Side . No snow plows? This map shows that snow plows . did not work on huge swathes of the Upper East Side yesterday afternoon - . a problem the city blamed on a faulty tracking device - as Mayor de . Blasio (right) smiles for the cameras as he cleans his own Brooklyn side . walk . Slow going: Traffic moves slowly on the ice and snow along  5th Avenue January 22, 2014 in New York. The northeastern US shivered amid heavy snowfall and far below average temperatures in a storm that grounded thousands of flights and triggered traffic chaos . Cleared: Snow covered streets are viewed in Brooklyn on the morning after a major winter storm blanketed much of New York City in 10 to 12 inches of snow on January 22, 2014 . Failed response: New York Mayor John Lindsay has . become notorious in the city for his poor handling of the 1969 blizzard . which claimed 14 lives .
East Side during Tuesday's snow storm . New York mayor Bill de Blasio acknowledged on Wednesday evening that there were flaws in his administrations response to the snowstorm which was treated differently.’ But he backtracked on could have been done to serve the Upper East the city and the mayor, Bill de Blasio was storm arrived earlier than expected on Tuesday Doherty said. On . Wednesday morning Today show weatherman Al Roker had tore into de . Blasio's neighborhood of Park Slope was largely snow free lives .