NYC NOW - Midday News: Cuomo Stays on the Ballot, A Midseason Honor for a Yankees Slugger, and Summertime Tips from a Local Building Super.

Episode Date: June 27, 2025

Former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo trails Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani for the Democratic nomination for mayor, but he'll be on the ballot on another party's line. It remains to be seen if he'll actively campaign. Meanwhile, Yankees slugger Aaron Judge is heading to the MLB All-Star Game. Plus, its WNYC's "Ask a Super" segment.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. It's Friday, June 27th. Here's the midday news from Michael Hill. Former Governor Andrew Cuomo will stay on the ballot for the general election this November. A campaign source says Cromo will not decline the nomination to run on the so-called fight and deliver ballot line and has not decided whether he'll actively campaigned for the general election. Today is the deadline for candidates to decline nomination. nations by a third party. The clock is ticking on New Jersey lawmakers, racing to end or rather

to Senate next year's budget plan to Governor Phil Murphy's desk by the end of this Monday. Double NIC's Mike Hayes has more on a big ticket item for seniors. Keep our seniors in New Jersey. That's the name of the game for the Stay NJ program. The billion dollar property tax relief initiative is slated to kick off in 26. Eligible seniors making less than 500,000, could receive up to $6,500 off their tax bill. Jersey lawmakers have a June 30 deadline to pass the full spending plan for the next fiscal year. They'll have to decide whether to fully fund costly programs like StanJ, or to pair them back to help cover for an expected cut to federal aid for the state from the Trump administration.

It's a mid-season honor for a Yankee slugger Aaron Judge. The Bronx Bombers outfielder has the most fan votes of any major league baseball player, for this summer's All-Star game. MLB says Judge got more than 4 million votes. Dodger star Shohey O'Tani came in second with just fewer than 4 million votes. This season, Judge, is off to an electric start. He leads to the major leagues in batting average and is second in home runs. The All-Star game is July 15th in Atlanta.

71 and cloudy now, mostly cloudy today in a high temperature of 74 degrees. Stay tuned for more after the break. I'm Michael Hill. Apartment living is hard enough, and we're here to help. WNYC is back this month with Ask a Super. It's your key to making city living work for you. Joining us now to help answer all your questions is Ron Pio Quinto. He's a working building super in Long Island City and also a member of the 32BJ Labor Union. Hey Ron, welcome back and happy summer. Thank you so much for having me, Michael. Ron, what are things like at your building this time of year? Air conditioning, air conditioning, air conditioning. I tell everybody, Michael, you know, very important when we start the spring, summer season.

Clean those filters, clean those filters, keep them at an optimal temperature range. You want these units to cycle on and off properly so that it will enhance its lifespan. If you drop the temperature to a much lower setting, your units will never turn off. You're going to have so many issues as a result of that. Do you have any tips for installing window units? I know there are a lot of buildings that would have central air where you don't have to deal with those kind of issues. But for others who, you know, perhaps maybe in older buildings, do you have any tips for installing air conditioners? Yes.

So if you don't understand what entails literally a window-mounted unit, I would definitely contact your building superintendent first or someone that can help you if you're not really understanding of how to install these things. but if you know how to do it on your own, just make sure that when you do install it on the window, that the dampers on either side, the vent dampers are closed properly. And also you need a pitch so that the condensation that you will generate

pitches back to the building outside the back of the window because if you're in a co-op and all of a sudden your neighbor downstairs to start saying, hey, your AC's dripping on my window ledge. That could become a problem so you're going to have to re-divert that condensation

with a drain pipe to make sure it stays away. from their plants they have out there, their terraces that they have out there, and everything else. Sounds like what you're saying, Ron, better to ask first before you go out and just willy-nilly do it.

Ron, speaking of hot and sticky, let's talk about the mold and mildew that humidity can cause. What can we do to combat that right now? So what is mold? Mold is generated from moisture, whether it's condensation of humidity or leaks in a home.

But mold and milder, there are two different types, The most dangerous one is the black mold, the one the city of New York wants everybody to stay on top of. Black mold is easily identifiable. It's black and greenish in color, and over time, not treated, becomes a little furry on the outside. That's the spores that become airborne that you could possibly inhale that can get you sick. Mildew is also another fungi, but it could be treated. Mildew is generally built up in the corner of your towel wall, in the corner of your tub.

behind a back splash for a faucet. That's where the water sits there. And if not clean properly, we'll turn black. It's not the type of mold that we're all very conscious of, but it could be treated as well. And how do you treat mold or mildew? Bleach and water. Bleach and water with a scrubby pad will treat any mold condition.

Okay. Now, if you have a level of mold or mildew condition, Coya's superintendent, first and foremost, as I tell everybody, let management know as well. Let's investigate and possibly mitigate. Right, here's another question. This time from Manhattan resident Micah Mastrangey. She describes a situation where someone who lives in a ground floor apartment in a six-story building suffers from repeated sewage backups.

What causes the sewage backups, she asked? Is there something a tenant can do about this, or is this a larger structural problem? A lot of times it could be a larger structural problem because certain communities where we resided, even in Long Island City, was not geared to all of the high-rise buildings that we have today. So that's an issue that the city of New York has been addressing since day one. They actually ripped up a very good portion of Long Island City to install larger piping. Okay?

Another thing that I find, Michael, is that people tend to put everything they want to put down the toilet. They put down white bees. They put down food. they put all of these items down into a toilet, right? You can't do that. Do not put them down the toilet. Because if you ask any superintendent, what are you finding an abundance in these

traps, these sewer traps in your building? And they're going to tell you, wipeies. What do you mean by wipeies, Ron? Well, you know the wipeies that you would use when you have your infant child and you use a wipei to wipe them and wipe your hands, those type of wipies? And first floor apartments are the first ones to get the backup because you're the first one tied into the piping system. If you lived on the second floor,

it's not going to touch you. That's 10 feet high. All right, Ron, one last question here. Summer is high time for moving, as we know. Lots of people listening, maybe planning their big departure to their next home. And maybe counting on getting their safety deposits back to help finance the move. What advice do you have, Ron,

for someone looking to ensure they get his or her safety deposit back? Listen, the way it is with any landlord and tenant relations is this. If we give you the apartment this way, you're supposed to give us back the apartment the same way, right? And don't get me wrong, Michael. There are tolerances that buildings would allow. But if you hung 100 pictures in your apartment, right?

And there's nothing wrong with that. You have to make sure that you patch the holes. Okay? So if you're that good tenant, that good neighbor with them, I think you're going to be fine. Ron, would you advise folks to take pictures of when they're moving in to see how pristine it is and the condition is in, and when they move out once they've cleaned up and done whatever tidying up,

they intend to do so that they can ensure they get their safety deposit back? I don't see anything wrong with that, you know, because I've had residents come into a building. They never really took a look at certain damages when they moved in. And then when they're moving out, they kept the apartment pristine. They were blamed for some of those items, okay? I always tell everybody, take pictures. Take pictures of the closets, the kitchen, the floors. And you make sure everything is 100%.

Because at the end of the day, once we do the inspection for the landlord, the rental building, we're going to say, okay, everything looks great. I knew that damage was there. That's not their responsibility. They had the apartment from this point of the year. They left at this time of the year. They didn't cause any damage to the apartment. Give their security deposit back to them.

That's Ron Pio Quinto, Long Island City Building Super, and 32 BJ union member, Ron, as always, this has been so informative. Thank you. We'll see you in the fall. Thank you, sir. Enjoy your day. Whenever we hear from Ron, we also want to hear from you, send us your questions for a building super, especially those that have to do with apartment living in the fall. We are eager to hear your responses at your voice at WNYC.org. That's your voice at WNYC.com. wwwc.org. Thanks for listening. This is NYC now from WMYC.

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