Tom Wolfe once said: \u201cOne belongs to New York instantly.\u201d<\/p>\n
Spoken like a true transplant.<\/p>\n
At long last, a new department will put an end to the enduring and increasingly intense debate on who gets to call themselves a New Yorker <\/a>\u2014 and has already revoked the bragging rights of the most famous native.<\/p>\n The Department of New Yorker Verification website is issuing \u201cofficial\u201d declarations on who gets to be considered a real New Yorker.<\/p>\n In its first official action, the Department of New Yorker Verification ruled that President Donald Trump is not fit for the coveted status<\/a> despite being a born-and-bred Queens man and Manhattan real estate mogul.<\/p>\n \u201cHe is, probably at this point, the most famous New Yorker there is. And he has constantly talked s\u2013t about the city, denigrated both the diversity of religion and nationality of the city, he\u2019s treated the diversity in the city as a problem and has constantly called it a trash hole,\u201d explained Franz Aliquo, the inaugural Verifier General\u00a0of the DNYV.<\/p>\n \u201cFor all those reasons \u2014 disrespecting the city itself \u2014 I feel like he is definitely the most visible New Yorker that does not deserve to be a New Yorker.\u201d<\/p>\n The dramatic decree comes just a week after Aliquo launched the executive authority on the issue and is now issuing certificates to verified New Yorkers \u2014 as part of its mission statement: \u201cResidence is an address. The title is earned.\u201d<\/p>\n The DNYV is an art project by Queens-born and Roosevelt Island-raised artist, Franz Aliquo. Franz Aliquo<\/p>\n In reality, the brand-spanking new agency<\/a> is an art project by the Queens-born, Roosevelt Island-raised artist who is sick and tired of the ever-changing goalposts for the bragging rights.<\/p>\n Aliquo himself realized he was \u201cbeing a little gatekeeper\u201d after meeting someone from Westchester County who claimed to be from New York.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is an almost silly thing that we put so much weight on what it takes to be a New Yorker. At the same time, the city does shape you in a way that no other place does,\u201d the artist, who is also the brains behind the 2004 Street Wars game, explained.<\/p>\n Donald Trump\u2019s New Yorker Verification certificate is the first to be revoked by the DNYV. Department of New Yorker Verification<\/p>\n Mayor Zohran Mamdani was not born in the US, but earned his New Yorker status, said Aliquo. Department of New Yorker Verification<\/p>\n The DNYV has been rifling through hundreds of applications since it opened last week, all of which were funneled through Track 1: Verification by Origin.<\/p>\n Applicants must share their current address, their birth certificate or high school diploma, and answer a series of questions \u2014 like \u201cbest pizza\u201d and \u201cworst subway station\u201d \u2014 to prove they were born into and molded by the Big Apple. <\/p>\n Track 2: Verification by Experience, tailored for the dreaded but omnipresent transplants, opened Monday and includes a lengthy questionnaire that allows applicants to rack up \u201csuffering points\u201d that only a real New Yorker would be able to secure.<\/p>\n The points vary based on the experiences, like crying in public and jumping a turnstile, as well as finding rats inside your apartment <\/a>and taping up windows during a blizzard.<\/p>\n \u201cI think the crux of gatekeeping is that people feel it\u2019s a little disrespectful to come into a place and be like, \u2018Oh, yeah, I\u2019m one of you\u2019 without having really experienced life,\u201d Aliquo said.<\/p>\n While the DNYV mostly grants certifications, it does reserve the right to revoke the title from those who violate the code of conduct, which simply demands respect for New York City and its people.<\/p>\n Trump was the first to have his certificate revoked, but Aliquo cryptically warned that Jennifer Lopez was on thin ice <\/a>despite famously being \u201cJenny from the Block.\u201d<\/p>\n