While many year-end political retrospectives are focusing on Mayor Bill de Blasio’s missteps in 2015, one program he launched this year was a resounding success.
It was unveiled to much fanfare in January.
"This ID epitomizes keeping this an open city," the mayor said back then.
An identification card the mayor said would bring immigrants out of the shadows and help them access city services. The biggest problem, at least early on: the card was too popular, leading to long waits.
De Blasio is fond of brandishing his own IDNYC card and arranged for dignitaries like the UN secretary-general and the Pope to receive them too.
He now proudly notes that demand far exceeded Immigrant Affairs Commissioner Nisha Agarwal’s projection of 100,000 signups.
"It was a brand new program; we thought it would have humble beginnings, based on how other things had gone around the country," de Blasio said. "Well, Nisha was off by a little bit. In less than a year, more than 670,000 New Yorkers now have an IDNYC card."
Those remarks came at an immigration conference two weeks ago where city officials also announced expanded perks in 2016.
"For year two, the card will remain free, which is very exciting," Agarwal said. "And we’ve added a number of new benefits. So we’ve added seven new cultural institutions."
Those include the Guggenheim and Museum of Modern Art, plus a 15 percent CitiBike discount for new cardholders, on top of numerous existing discounts like the YMCA and even prescription drugs.
Still, while a number of small banks and credit unions accept the card as a primary form of ID, the big banks do not.
"We’re certainly going to help them to understand this ID card was created with the NYPD. It could not be more secure. In fact, the NYPD is one of the biggest backers of IDNYC, because they want every New Yorker on the streets to have an ID card."
The city is certainly now closer to that reality — as of Monday, officials said, total enrollment is now over 700,000.