NY: Exclusive: City Council member wants NYC ID to be valid for buying alcohol

New York Daily News

By Erin Durkin

March 21, 2016

A City Councilman wants you to be able to buy a drink with your municipal ID card.

Democrat Ritchie Torres will introduce a resolution this week pushing to make the city-issued NYC ID a valid form of identification for getting into bars and buying alcohol.

“Most people are shocked to discover that the municipal ID is invalid at alcohol establishments,” Torres, of the Bronx, said. “It defies common sense. It creates confusion.”

The city-issued ID card gives the owner’s date of birth, but rules don’t allow bars and liquor stores to accept it. That has led some confused patrons to try and use and get turned away, and bars to start posting signs that it’s not accepted.

“It’s good enough to get you an account at Amalgamated Bank, but it’s not good enough to get you a vodka Sprite,” Torres said. The issue is controlled by state alcoholic beverage control law, so the Council resolution is nonbinding.

The ID was created in part to help undocumented immigrants who can’t get driver’s licenses, and offers a host of benefits, like free memberships to museums.