The mayor of San Juan, Puerto Rico says a New York City taxi driver refused to give her a ride to the Bronx.
Carmen Yulin Cruz says she hailed a yellow cab in Manhattan Wednesday and asked to be taken to her hotel in the Bronx.
However, the mayor says the driver stopped after a few blocks and would not go any further.
He then claimed that he did not know where the hotel was located and refused to go to the Bronx.
"He kicked us out. He told us we had to get out," Cruz said. "And he knew he was not doing the right thing because I said, 'Well, I'm not going to pay you, you're kicking me out of the cab,' he says, 'You don't have to pay me.'"
Cruz says the practice is unfair to people who live outside Manhattan.
"Just 'cause you're going to the Bronx, or just 'cause you're going to Queens, or just 'cause you're going outside of Manhattan doesn't mean you're going to a lesser place," she said.
"If somebody lives in the Bronx and wants to get home, they have the right to demand that service and to get that service," said City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito.
Cruz says the next cabbie she hailed made the trip, but complained the whole way there.
Drivers licensed by the Taxi and Limousine Commission are required to take passengers to any address in the city.
Cruz said she's filing a complaint with the Taxi and Limousine Commission. A spokesman there said, "We sincerely regret Mayor Cruz' negative experience, and assure her that we are investigating this fully and will hold the drivers accountable for their actions."
Cruz's experience is hardly an isolated one. The TLC says 5,400 people who filed complaints about service refusals pursued their complaints in hearings last year.
The San Juan mayor says friends warned her that getting to the Bronx would be tricky.
"This is New York. The world looks at this city with admiration. The experience, the entire experience has to be an experience that speaks to the greatness of the city," Cruz said.