Community IDs for New Residents Suddenly Make a Splash

One of the very first things I did when we moved to our current home was to sign up for a municipal identification card. The reason was super simple: It got us cheaper admission to the swimming pool just down the road. It never occurred to me that ID programs like ours might be considered radical.

But last week, my son and I attended a mayoral candidate forum in a neighboring city where the recently approved municipal photo IDs for those who have lived there for 15 days was strongly opposed by some very vocal residents. I was surprised. My only frame of reference was those discounted rates at the community’s recreation complex. So I checked around.

By coincidence, my favorite urban planning podcast just released an episode about municipal IDs in two very different places: New York City and Greenville, North Carolina. Both of them were conceived as a way to help those who might not otherwise qualify for a state ID, people without a permanent address, people recently released from prison, people without documentation, etc. Both cities worked very closely with their police departments, who see the ID as a trust-building measure.

That also surprised me, because I didn’t realize that in some places (New York City, for example) you could get arrested for not presenting an ID when asked for it by law enforcement.

The NYCID gets cardholders discounted (or free!) admission at many of the city’s cultural institutions. It can also be connected to all three of the city’s library systems. In Greenville, the ID is very beneficial to those without sufficient health insurance; if they present it when visiting a provider, they can be eligible for reduced-cost medical and dental care.

Who wouldn’t want this?

Well, to come back to our neighboring city, the residents expressed worry that the cards would be attractive to individuals who “don’t belong here” and might be more likely to commit crime. Turns out they were referring to immigrants—and that lead to a whole follow-on conversation about why the mayoral candidates supported welcoming people from other countries to help maintain population. It’s a goal for the whole St. Louis area, which has more deaths than births overall. There are tons of nonprofits and business groups working hard to attract immigrants to our region and supporting those who are recently arrived.

I’m guessing that most of the folks who renew their resident card each year in my suburb don’t know any of this backstory and wouldn’t even connect the card they scan at the pool to the wider conversations around immigration, trust in law enforcement, access to healthcare, support for the arts, and on and on.

But when I go in to renew mine next spring, I’m going to do so with a little bit more mindfulness about what it means to be from this place.