February 18, 2020

Why You Might Need to Line Up for a New Driver’s License

By Azi Paybarah

It’s Tuesday.

Weather: Rain, mainly after lunchtime, with a high near 50.

Alternate-side parking: In effect until Feb. 26 (Ash Wednesday).

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Elizabeth D. Herman for The New York Times

A New York State driver’s license can help you do lots of things: enter bars, get a senior discount MetroCard, earn a blue verification badge on Facebook.

For many years, you could also use your driver’s license to board domestic flights and enter federal buildings. Starting Oct. 1, you’ll need a new driver’s license to do that.

To get that new license, you have to apply in person at a motor vehicle office.

And if you thought the lines were long before. …

[Need a new driver’s license to fly? Prepare for a real wait.]

The details

The New York Department of Motor Vehicles is offering three types of documents: REAL ID, Enhanced and standard. (Nondrivers can get similar documents.)

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These three documents are a result of a law Congress passed in 2005, which, among other things, set “minimum security standards for state-issued driver’s licenses and identification cards.” Starting in October, federal officials will require people to use those new licenses.

The options

REAL ID: You can use this license or ID card to board domestic flights and enter federal facilities and military bases. Applying for this requires an in-person visit to a D.M.V. office. It is available to citizens and legal residents.

REAL IDs have a star at the top right of the card.

Enhanced: You can use this card to board domestic flights and enter federal facilities and military bases. You can also use it to enter the United States from Canada, Mexico and some Caribbean countries.

The document is available only to U.S. citizens and requires an in-person visit to a D.M.V. office.

Enhanced cards have an American flag at the lower-right corner and the word “Enhanced” at the top.

Standard: You cannot use this card to board domestic flights after October, nor to enter federal facilities or enter the United States at an airport or border crossing. Applying for this document does not require an in-person visit to a D.M.V. office.

The words “Not for federal purposes” are at the top right of the card.

The process

In New York, REAL ID transactions have increased by more than 500 percent since November 2017, when the D.M.V. began issuing the licenses.

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A top official at the department said it had hired 400 more employees and assigned them to offices downstate, my colleague James Barron reported.

The reaction

D.M.V. offices are rarely known for speedy service. Now, the problem appears to be getting worse, as people try to get new licenses ahead of the October deadline.

Harry Lustgarten, 20, arrived at the D.M.V.’s Midtown Manhattan office at 8:15 on a recent Tuesday morning. At 10:45 a.m., he gave up and left, Mr. Barron reported.

Kelly Yu said she spent five hours waiting at that office before she gave up and booked an appointment two weeks later, in Staten Island.

From The Times

A Latino Worker, a Risky Construction Site and a Family in Mourning

After 53 Years as a Federal Judge in Brooklyn, Jack B. Weinstein Is Retiring

Life of a C.I.A. Coder: Nerf Guns, Pranks and Fat Jokes

Want more news? Check out our full coverage.

The Mini Crossword: Here is today’s puzzle.

What we’re reading

Prosecutors in Staten Island are building a list of police officers whom they will not allow to testify. [Gothamist]

Subway cars were found covered with graffiti. One was spray-painted with the message “Don’t Come Here.” [NY1]

A police detective died by suicide in Middle Village, Queens. [QNS]

Coming up today

All levels are welcome at a slow flow yoga class at the NYRR RUNCENTER in Manhattan. 7:30 a.m. and noon. [Free with R.S.V.P.]

The Toni Morrison Festival celebrates the author’s life with music, dance and speakers at the Brooklyn Museum. 6 p.m. [$10]

Historians shed light on New York City’s early black neighborhoods at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Manhattan. 6:30 p.m. [Free]

— Alana Herlands

Events are subject to change, so double-check before heading out. For more events, see the going-out guides from The Times’s culture pages.

And finally: Is this the nicest public bathroom in New York?

The Times’s Winnie Hu reports:

There are freshly plucked ornamental grasses by the sink, and four gleaming toilets with sanitary seat covers that rotate between uses with the wave of a hand.

Black-and-white photos of old New York decorate the walls. Soothing classical music is piped in, along with heat on chilly days.

“It’s very elegant,” marveled Yolanda Reyes, 53, a cleaning woman from Brooklyn who made a pit stop after getting off the subway. “It made me feel very comfortable.”

The well-appointed bathroom, which reopened recently after a two-and-a-half-year makeover that cost nearly $600,000, sits in Greeley Square Park, on Broadway between 32nd and 33rd Streets. It’s a quick dash from a major subway stop and the New York terminus of the PATH train, which connects Manhattan to New Jersey.

Elements here were copied from nearby Bryant Park, which has long had the Tiffany’s of public restrooms.

“We cater to everybody from C.E.O.s to homeless people,” said Dan Biederman, who oversees the bathrooms in both locations as president of the 34th Street Partnership and executive director of the Bryant Park Corporation. “It’s one of the few places where people interact. It’s common space.”

The Greeley Square bathroom is open seven days a week and staffed by an attendant at all times. Its annual operating budget of $245,000 will be paid by the partnership.

It’s Tuesday — treat yourself.