Evening Roundup: School Cell Phone Ban in Budget Negotiations, Man Dies in NYPD Custody, Yankees Return to the Bronx, Ask a Super and Women’s History Month.

negotiations. A man dies in NYPD custody. The Yankees return to the Bronx for their season opener. Our Ask a Super segment, and Women's History Month. From WNYC, this is NYC Now. I'm Janae Pierre.

The debate over cell phones in schools is dying down a bit as the New York State Legislature inches closer to prohibiting students from using their smartphones from opening bell to closing bell. Governor Kathy Hochul and teachers' unions have been pushing a smartphone ban for months, but school administrators want the option to let students use their phones during lunch and other non-instructional periods. Here's State Senate Majority Leader, Andrea Stewart-Cousins.

Andrea Stewart-Cousins: We have heard a lot from a lot of the stakeholders here, and I think as of around yesterday the majority of the members are more comfortable with a bell-to-bell approach. They really are.

Janae Pierre: The phone ban is wrapped up in state budget negotiations. A final budget is due by Tuesday, but Hochul and lawmakers are likely to approve a short-term extension.

Officials are investigating after a 43-year-old man died in NYPD custody at Manhattan Criminal Court Wednesday morning. Police say he was discovered unresponsive around 8:00 while waiting to see a judge on a drug charge. The man was just arrested Tuesday evening in Midtown. It's the third time this year someone in city custody has died in a local courthouse.

The NYPD has not released the man's name as they work to notify his family. The city's chief medical examiner is looking into his cause of death. The NYPD's investigations division is also reviewing the incident.

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Janae Pierre: Baseball returns to the Bronx this week. The Yankees start their season against the Milwaukee Brewers at 3:00 Thursday afternoon in the Boogie Down. Yankees fans have bad memories of the last game played on their home field. They watched the LA Dodgers celebrate winning the World Series last fall. But it's a new season, and a little luck could go far. Fan favorite Andy Pettitte will throw the ceremonial Opening Day first ball. The lefty pitcher helped the Yankees win five World Series during his career. His number 46 was retired by the team in his honor.

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Janae Pierre: If you're like me, you're always calling or emailing your building super about some new issue at your apartment. After the break, it's our new segment, Ask a Super. Stick around. He may have the answer you need.

New York is a city of renters, and for those renters, it's sometimes brutal out there. Sky-high rents, tiny apartments, and of course all the little issues that pop up in your home. What are you supposed to do when the garbage disposal doesn't work? What's the safest way to install a window AC unit, and when should I throw out my compost? Those are all questions we're posing through a new segment called Ask a Super, where we'll do just that. Meet Ron Pioquinto. He's a working building superintendent in Long Island City.

Ron Pioquinto: I've been in this business for a very long time, and I've been in this location here for almost 19 years. We're here to make sure that the safety of our residents and our owners is up to speed.

Janae Pierre: Ron oversees 118 units in two separate buildings. Fortunately, it's not just him. He has a crew of eight men, plus janitors and porters alike. Here's what his day looks like.

Ron Pioquinto: Five o'clock in the morning, I get up in the morning. I come down to my office by at least seven o'clock. I look at my emails daily. I receive phone calls from my owners as well. How I prioritize leaks, gas leaks, if those issues do pop up, that's top of the line right there. Besides doing all of that, we have the upkeep of our buildings. We paint common hallway doorways. We're in the process of upgrading all of our light bulbs in the building with Local Law 88. We're doing installation of gas leak detectors.

It's not just maintenance work orders. It's not just prioritizing what's of urgency, what's not of urgency. It's also a lot of stuff we need to maintain to being compliant with the City of New York as well.

Janae Pierre: With over two decades as a super, Ron knows that the change in the season brings new issues and concerns for some tenants, like spring composting, but Ron says it's all about communication.

Ron Pioquinto: We need to communicate with all our residents in the building, okay? What I do is I send an email blast and I put bulletins up, and I speak to everyone as they come down to my office on what to/what not to do when it comes to composting. Whenever they have shrubs, whenever they have leftover food, they bring it to our containers that we have spaced out throughout the building. Then we collect them on a daily basis and pile them up when it's ready to be discarded for the City of New York to pick them up. When you control that, you can control other things.

Janae Pierre: Other things like vermin, an issue that many New Yorkers are forced to grapple with. However, Ron doesn't have that problem at any of his buildings. Not even a roach, he says. I know. That's pretty surprising, but here's the trick.

Ron Pioquinto: We clean out the bins every day. We make sure we pack it away properly for the sanitation pump to pick up. Trash in our building is picked up three times a day. We just don't do it on one time a day. If you incorporate something in a positive way for your building, you really should be on top of any other issue besides that when it comes to vermin.

Janae Pierre: Luckily I don't have that issue, and neither does Maggie Stapleton. She lives in Jackson Heights, Queens, and she had this question for Ron.

Maggie Stapleton: I'm renting in a co-op building, and I often wonder when do I go to my landlord and when do I go to my super? It always depends on the issue, but I'm usually not certain at the get-go.

Ron Pioquinto: Good question. Every building is different. How they communicate to me, they email me, they call me on my cell phone. They can call the front desk. If it's of urgency, they call me immediately. I'll address the issue. If it doesn't have to go up to the landlord of the building, 90% of the time you can alleviate that, and the superintendent should be able to resolve that unless it has something to do with something more detailed. When it comes down to anything within the building, you should be able to contact your superintendent via phone call or via email.

Janae Pierre: Ron Piaquinto is a building superintendent in Long Island City. You'll likely hear from him again on our continued series Ask a Super. In fact, send us your question for a building super, especially if they have to do with the problems that pop up around springtime in your apartment. Send us an email at yourvoice@nyc.org.

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Janae Pierre: National Women's History Month is still going strong. To market, we're profiling some local musicians and their journey through the music industry, like Amani Adelekan. She's a 21-year-old artist from Staten Island.

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Amani Adelekan: Music to me started as a feeling that I couldn't really describe, but I just knew it was something that belonged to me in a way I understood it. I could hear elements within it that was so rich and so exciting, especially as a kid. Now being able to create forms of music that I loved growing up, create that effect for someone else, means that much more to me.

I think my music encapsulates a lot of different genres. More at the forefront, pop and R&B, but I love to include jazz, country, even some rock in there to really add some dynamic elements, whether it's through the production or the lyrics-storytelling aspect. 2024 was my first year really releasing music as an independent artist, and the independent part is definitely challenging. You are admin, you're doing marketing, you're scheduling your own sessions, but on the other hand, knowing all sides of it right from the jump is also very valuable, and ends up being helpful. In the moment, it definitely is not fun.

Entering the music industry is already hard enough no matter who you are, but especially as a Black woman, I think it takes a lot of self-motivation. Reminding yourself that you're good at what you do, but also that you belong in a place where sometimes you are told you don't belong. That's why seeing representation is so important. I mean, it was important for me when I was growing up watching Disney Channel at the time, like A.N.T. Farm, and seeing the main character was a Black girl that loved to write music and had her guitar, that really inspired me to be like, "Oh, I want to do that."

I would love to continue in my career with the mindset of inspiring other young Black women to be in whatever genre they want to be in and to not be in a box of any kind, like with the types of music you're making. Whoever you are, and whatever your identity is, just be truly you no matter what.

[MUSIC - Take Up Everything (Oblivious): Amani Adelekan]

Night or day

You're on my brain

But oblivious

Is where you stay

Janae Pierre: That's Amani Adelekan, a musician from Staten Island. She composed this song called Take Up Everything. Thanks for listening to NYC Now from WNYC. I'm Janae Pierre. We'll be back tomorrow.

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