Museums no longer honoring NYC ID card

Democratic election commissioner thinks "there is a lot of voter fraud"

From the NY Post:

The Manhattan Democratic representative on the city’s Board of Elections was caught on a secret video slamming Mayor Bill de Blasio’s municipal ID program as contributing to “all kinds of fraud” — including at the polls.

“He gave out ID cards, de Blasio. That’s in lieu of a driver’s license, but you can use it for anything,” Commissioner Alan Schulkin said in the undercover video recorded by a muckraker for conservative nonprofit Project Veritas.

“But they didn’t vet people to see who they really are. Anybody can go in there and say, ‘I am Joe Smith, I want an ID card,’ ” he said in the bombshell tape.

NYCID: not all it's cracked up to be

From AM-NY:

When I received a letter two weeks later containing the card I was surprised: Despite my visa expiring in a year, the card said I was a New Yorker until 2021. My face was over-imposed on the map of the five boroughs for five years!

Two months later, as I tried to get into a well-known Hell’s Kitchen bar, the bouncer asked for proof of age. An occasion to unsheathe my card!

I was baffled when he shook his head and said: “We don’t accept this, this is not valid. You need a state ID.”

“This is from the city of New York,” I said. “Yeah, we don’t accept this.”

My Italian driving license opened the gate. I downgraded the episode, labeling it a misunderstanding.

But after a while, it happened again. This time I couldn’t even get in to a Williamsburg bar, despite my friends’ assurances about my age. And I wasn’t carrying my Italian driving license anymore.

“Why do I need this,” I thought of the license, “if I have the IDNYC.”

My wife laughed at me that night. She didn’t want to get the card after I showed her mine. “You wasted your time,” she said.

I was convinced there must’ve been a mistake, even though I remembered the bank had refused a check without an identification other than my IDNYC.

Finally, the coup de grace came in May. I went for a jog in Prospect Park, and I was returning home when I thought to stop by the zoo. As an IDNYC holder, I was entitled to free entry: finally some privilege!

I approached the gate and showed the card. I was told that I first needed to go to the Bronx Zoo (physically) to register before I could gain free entry.

Rome is well-known for its byzantine bureaucracy. I have lived in New York for about a year, and I don’t carry my IDNYC card anymore. I now feel at home.:

Banks won't accept NYC ID

From DNA Info:

There are no banks that accept the ID as primary identification in Flushing, a heavily Asian-immigrant neighborhood. In Jackson Heights, Corona and Elmhurst, one of the most diverse sections of Queens, there are only three banks that take the card as a primary identification document. Banks categorize some identification documents as "primary"—usually driver's licenses, state IDs, passports, and foreign-issued IDs—and others, such as credit cards and leases, as "secondary."

And you can't buy a beer with one, either.

City Council wants to decriminalize certain offenses

From CBS 2:

Turnstile jumping and public urination are still expected to be treated as crimes warranting an arrest, but a host of minor offenses such as drinking in public are expected to be treated administratively rather than criminally.

The changes would come under planned adjustments to the city’s quality of life laws being worked out by Mayor Bill de Blasio, police Commissioner Bill Bratton, and City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, sources said.

The last line of this report is classic. Why ask for ID? Use the honor system!

Queens requests the most municipal IDs

From the Times Ledger:

Queens residents have submitted the largest number of municipal ID applications out of the five boroughs, the city announced last week.

Out of 101,063 processed applications from the five boroughs during period from Jan. 1 to March 30, the city has received 34,616 applications from Queens, according to the first quarterly IDNYC report prepared by the city Human Resources Administration, the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs and the Mayor’s Office of Operations.

The second highest was Brooklyn, with 30,805 applications, and the lowest was Staten Island, with 3,513. The city received 14,976 applications from Manhattan and 17,153 applications from the Bronx.

De Blasio's grammar problem

Yup, this was tweeted out yesterday. I suppose the author of this tweet graduated from CUNY with honors.

The Muni ID is here!

Oh, and there are application centers "across the city": 3 in Queens, 3 in Brooklyn and 3 in Manhattan, 2 in the Bronx and one in Staten Island! Which shows you how few of these they think they'll be giving out.

NYC ID cards ready to roll

From IBTimes:

Illegal immigrants living in the most populous city in the United States will soon be able to obtain identification cards needed to access government services and other benefits. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the criteria for the municipal ID card Friday while reassuring the public that the program would protect against identification fraud.

To prevent fraud, applicants must present proof of identity, including foreign passports and birth certificates, and New York City residency. The cards will be printed on polycarbonate card stock and will include an embedded hologram, the applicant's signature and a secondary, black and white "ghost" photo of the applicant.

Government officials hope they will soon be able to keep better track of who lives in New York City under the ID program. Roughly half of all New York City residents over the age of 16 don't have state driver's licenses.

New York City is home to more than 500,000 immigrants without legal status.

Benefits associated with city ID card

From NYC.gov:

Today, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that the City’s Municipal ID, which will launch in January 2015, will give all ID card holders access to one-year free membership packages at 33 of the City’s leading cultural institutions, including world class museums, performing arts centers, concert halls, botanical gardens, and zoos in all five boroughs. The Municipal ID/CIG one-year membership will be comparable to each institution’s standard one-year individual or family membership package, depending on the institution, and will give ID card holders a range of benefits including free admission, and access to special events, and discounts to museum shops.

The 33 institutions belong to the Cultural Institutions Group (CIG) which is comprised of private nonprofit cultural organizations located on City owned property. The first member of the CIG, the American Museum of Natural History, was created in 1869 and the group has grown to include a diverse cross section of institutions in each of the boroughs. The City provides capital, operating and energy support to CIG members and in turn each institution is charged with providing access to cultural services and programming to all New Yorkers.

“The Municipal ID Program is one that has the potential to transform lives, and to help ensure its success the cultural community, and in particular the Cultural Institutions Group’s members, have stepped up to the plate,” said City Council Majority Leader and Chair of Libraries & International Intergroup Relations Committee Jimmy Van Bramer. “Culture is always important in our City and with this announcement we are reminded of the centrality of the arts to our City. Access to the arts for all and a more just City is being accomplished with the help of these great institutions. It is a great day.”

“I am grateful to the Cultural Institutions Group for teaming up to make New York’s municipal ID program the envy of other cities,” said Municipal ID Bill Sponsor Council Member Daniel Dromm. “This world-class ID will make our city’s world-class cultural institutions accessible to every New Yorker, from recent immigrant families to students and young professionals. With all of the fun and exciting options that this card will provide, New Yorkers will have no excuse to fail to get a card or to stay at home.”

Queens locations:
Flushing Town Hall
Jamaica Center for Arts & Learning
Museum of the Moving Image
New York Hall of Science
MoMA PS1
Queens Botanical Garden
Queens Museum
Queens Theatre

From the Observer:

But plenty of questions about the IDs still remain — including what documentation will be required to receive them and whether financial institutions will accept them to grant bank accounts or other services that were key to the argument the cards were necessary.

Mr. de Blasio told the Observer the process of determining what would be needed to prove identity and residency had been a thorough one that involved the NYPD, and Immigrant Affairs Commissioner Nisha Agarwal said draft rules would be up for comment soon.

“There will be a public hearing in early October to discuss things like what documents you need to bring to be able to show identify, residency, and what are some of the other rules and details of this program,” Ms. Agarwal told the Observer.

As for getting banks to accept the cards, Ms. Agarwal said progress was being made there, too.

“We’re in active conversations with the financial institutions as well as with their regulators to hopefully be able to announce soon enough the commitment of financial institutions participating with the municipal ID as well,” Ms. Agarwal said.

The money pit has no bottom

From the Daily News:

In April, an obscure quasi-governmental agency called the NYC Technology Development Corp. hired a consultant to map out the implementation of the city’s new municipal ID card.

The firm, Gartner Inc., was awarded a no-bid $350,000 contract to get the controversial ID cards ready to go by the end of the year.

There was only one problem — a year earlier, the city controller had red-flagged Gartner for what he called “questionable spending and dubious timesheets” on another city tech project that had ballooned to $25 million.

What made the Gartner selection even more puzzling was that it mirrors a tactic that led to the notorious CityTime scandal — hiring an outside consultant to make sure an important taxpayer-funded tech job is completed on time and without waste.

Only bill supporters allowed to speak at ID card hearing

From NY1:

It is the latest sign of the blurred line between the two sides of City Hall. Mayor Bill de Blasio opted to hold a well-attended hearing on the city's municipal ID card legislation in the chamber where the City Council conducts its business. Mayoral hearings are traditionally held in the Blue Room in the mayor's wing of City Hall.

"I just think this is a really important moment to note the incredible teamwork between the administration and City Council in getting this done," de Blasio said.

An aide to the mayor said the location was chosen to accommodate the large crowd that turned out for the hearing.

Only supporters of the legislation lined up to speak. The New York Civil Liberties Union has problems with the bill, but did not testify. Sources say the administration was unhappy with their planned remarks.

(And you thought Bloomberg squelched free speech...)

Illegal aliens will get ID cards *with discounts*

From Crains:

New York City is poised to approve the creation of municipal identification cards that would allow immigrants living in the country illegally to access key city services they were previously unable to obtain.

The City Council will vote Thursday to create the New York City Identity Card, Democratic Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito told the Associated Press on Monday. The card will be available to New Yorkers who can prove their identity and residence in the city's five boroughs.

The mayor, a longtime ally of Ms. Mark-Viverito, set aside more than $8 million in his executive budget for the creation of the program.

The card will also offer yet-to-be-determined incentives to encourage immigrants who have legal residency status to obtain them, Ms. Mark-Viverito's spokesman said. Advocates say they believe benefits, such as perhaps restaurant or museum discounts, will popularize the ID card and prevent a stigma from emerging around it.

Fake IDs pretty easy to come by

From the Daily News:

It took me just an hour and a half to get a fake ID in New York City’s ground zero for the fraudulent document business — Roosevelt Ave. in Queens.

The Jackson Heights neighborhood is the epicenter of fake paper mills — rackets that fuel teenage drinking and identity theft and also create fake green cards and passports that can pose a serious security threat.

At first I was laughed at for looking like a cop. But when I swapped my leather jacket for a red hoodie, a guy carrying boxes was quick to call a friend who could help me out.

“You need a fake ID?” the man asked. While several cops roamed the gritty avenue, he led me into an electronics store to get my picture taken for $10.

I wrote down my information on a piece of paper, and then he told me the phony card would be ready in an hour. He took $100 from me and slipped away.

After 90 minutes, I was led into a narrow staircase in a seedy storefront where we made the exchange — my new fake ID in return for another $50.

I didn’t get a new high-tech driver’s license — those are much harder to reproduce — but the market for current licenses, which are still valid if they are issued before September 2013, is skyrocketing.

Law enforcement officials are worried that legislation in the City Council to create municipal ID cards for the undocumented would allow for more shady transactions to take place.

Bratton not excited about NYC ID cards

From the Daily News:

As immigrants urged the City Council to create a municipal photo ID card, Police Commissioner Bill Bratton said Wednesday that he has “concerns” about the program.

Bratton said he supports the general concept of an ID card, but that it would be a challenge to make it tamper-proof.

“Certainly, we would have concerns as to the validation process going forward,” he said. “The devil is going to be in the details.”

As he spoke, the Council heard testimony from supporters of the cards, which would be available to undocumented immigrants.

Advocates said transgender people, the elderly, New Yorkers who don’t drive, and the homeless could also benefit from the cards.

IDs are readily available to transgender people, the elderly and New Yorkers who don't drive via the DMV. The homeless can obtain assistance from their social workers. Shouldn't we be referring people to existing resources rather than introducing a new bloated government system? And how exactly do they plan to verify the identity of an illegal alien? Have someone vouch for them?

Illegal alien ID card to be voted on by City Council

From the Capital NY:

Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito touted the benefits of an impending municipal identification bill, during an immigration panel at the annual National Action Network convention in Midtown today.

"Creating a municipal ID program will be the largest municipal ID program in the United States," Mark-Viverito told the audience, to applause. "[It] will be available to all New York City residents regardless of their immigration status … it's just the beginning."

As first reported by Capital, the Council's immigration committee, chaired by Councilman Carlos Menchaca, drafted the bill, which would require the city to create an "identity card program." The cards would allow New Yorkers to access city services that require identification, and city agencies would be required to accept the card as a valid form of ID. The City Clerk's office would handle the process.

"It's not a driver's license," Mark-Viverito told reporters after the panel, adding that the benefits of the card would include "going into libraries, going into schools if parents want to go into schools and sign in and basically participate. It's a basic ID card that as we continue to implement it, it also can grow in terms of what level of access it can provide."

Lucia Gomez, executive director of La Fuente, told Capital today she was satisfied with the way the bill was drafted.

Gomez told Capital that certain technical parts of the legislation, such as the penalties for applicants who provide fraudulent information, are still being hammered out. Those details are set to be discussed during through the hearing process.

Mark-Viverito today would not elaborate on whether the New York Police Department would accept the ID as valid form of identification, but sounded confident that all city agencies would be given a chance to weigh in, and would be willing to comply.

Dromm wants ID cards for illegals; sees no terrorism threat

"Crapper: check out this 12 minute video of Sunday morning's Up Close with Diana Williams. I swear Dromm (the author of the possible Municipal ID card) and his fellow numbskulls on the NYC Council and the Bolshevik mayor are going to get us killed by terrorists. A must-see-and -hear. Regards, GtheA"

He also goes so far to suggest that they should be able to vote in NYC elections.

DeBlasio wants to help illegals get public housing

From Metro:

Mayor Bill de Blasio wants to give all New Yorkers access to a universal ID card, regardless of immigration status before the year’s end .

“To all of my fellow New Yorkers who are undocumented, I say: New York City is your home too, and we will not force any of our residents to live their lives in the shadows,” de Blasio said at Monday’s State of the City address.

The mayor first committed to the idea during his campaign to replace Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who despite being a vocal advocate of immigrant communities never fully backed the proposal.

Supporters of the policy argue that a universal ID card benefits not only the residents who previously lacked access to certain services but improves relationships between city agencies and the immigrant community.

While the particulars of a universal New York City ID cards still need to be hammered out, immigrants previously lacking proper identification would gain access certain services mundane to New York City residents with government approved ID.

The new ID card could enable formerly unregistered residents to open bank accounts and sign leases, as well as apply for social services including public housing programs.

Yes, let's bend over backwards to help people who shouldn't be here in the first place.

DeBlasio will institute illegal alien ID card

From the Capital New York:

Bill de Blasio said if elected mayor, he would seek "right away" to create in "early 2014" a municipal identification card for undocumented immigrants in New York City.

De Blasio — the Democratic mayoral nominee who enjoys a forty-point lead over his Republican opponent — made the comment during a press conference on the steps of City Hall where he was joined by supporters, including members from a number of immigrant rights groups. De Blasio said details about how to create the cards and which agency would issue them still needed to be explored "but we have working models" he said, "from other cities" that "have proven to be effective. So, we'd borrow from them."

New rules of the road for delivery bikes in effect

From NY1:

Delivery cyclists are facing new rules of the road today.

The City Council has updated the laws for commercial bicyclists in an effort to make the streets safer.

Under the new rules, commercial cyclists must wear reflective vests and bicycle helmets.

They must also carry a business ID card at all times.

Business owners must supply all of these items.

They must also make sure bikes are equipped with a bell, lights, brakes, reflectors and a sign showing the business name and bike ID number.

Violators face fines from $100 to $250.

For more on the city's bicycle laws, visit nyc.gov/bikes.

You can now register to vote online

From the Daily News:

Registering to vote is now as easy as making a few clicks on a mouse.

People with a valid driver’s license or state-issued non-driver’s ID can use the website of the state Department of Motor Vehicles to register to vote or to update their current registration, Gov. Cuomo announced Thursday.

“It is going to make it much easier for voters to register, and that is always a good thing,” said Mylan Denerstein, Cuomo’s counsel.

State officials also announced plans to place electronic voter registration terminals in all local DMV offices.

Denerstein said the initiative would boost New York's sagging voter enrollment numbers and also save taxpayers money by streamlining the DMV’s handling of voter registrations.

The state ranks 47th in the nation in voter registration, with less than 64% of eligible residents registered, according to Cuomo administration officials.