Replies

That was the old WASP "Silk Stocking District." Theodore White called it the "Perfumed Stockade," the national capital of the Republican Establishmen. Nowadays it's not so WASPy and they vote Democrat like the rest of the city. Obama carried the Upper East Side handily, but DiBlasio probably trod on more than a few toes there. Bloomberg is much more their kind of person. DeBlasio seems like somebody who likes making enemies among those he thinks have too much money.

The Wikipedia page is interesting. The UES is the only part of Manhattan where registered Republicans make up more than 20% of the voters, and in one small part of the neighborhood there are actually as many registered Republicans as Democrats (the only part of Manhattan where that is true). It's no longer WASP Central. By one estimate, a third of residents are Jewish. But the district looks a lot like America used to. Wikipedia says the neighborhood is 88% White. That can't actually be true, can it?