From burner phones to decks of cards: NYC teens are adjusting to the smartphone ban

Today’s newsletter is curated by James Ramsay

Weather: ☀️ Sunny, highs in the lower 80s.

It’s Thursday in New York City, where public school students are one week into the statewide phone ban.

How are they adjusting?

By playing cards, chatting with each other, listening to music on transistor radios and facing moments of boredom head-on.

There have also been reports of students allegedlybreaking into the pouches that are supposed to keep their phones magnetically locked up.

Here’s what we heard from students and faculty about the rollout of the ban.

And here’s what else is happening:

• This morning’s 24th annual 9/11 commemoration ceremony will be followed by President Donald Trump’s appearance at a Yankees game and the start of Fashion Week — so expect a day of gridlock and road closures.
• Gov. Kathy Hochul is urging New Yorkers to cut back on water use with a statewide drought watchnow covering 50 counties, including Rockland, Orange, Ulster and Dutchess.
• Two people who were critically injured in separate violent incidents in the Bronx last month have died — including a teenage girl wounded in a mass shooting during a basketball tournament — according to police.
• Roughly 450,000 New Yorkers could lose eligibility for free government health insurance under a plan pushed by Gov. Hochul, who said the move is necessary due to federal health care funding cuts.
• The City Council voted yesterday to overturn Mayor Eric Adams’ vetoesof two worker-protection bills, thereby preserving wage boosts for grocery delivery workers and lesser penalties for improper street vending.
• A Columbia Universitygraduate student was detained, handcuffed and subsequently released by several people claiming to be federal agents near the school this week, according to acting University President Claire Shipman.
• Federal immigration agents were seemingly forced to retreat from a Rochester job site — in vehicles with slashed tires — after being confronted by more than 100 protesters this week.
• City leaders have stepped in to replace federal funding for an AmeriCorps programthat pays New Yorkers to work in community service.
• East Harlem leaders are calling for a passageway between the neighborhood’s incoming Second Avenue subwayextension and its Metro-North stop by repurposing a railroad station that was abandoned in the 1800s.
• At a time when more than 75% of Americans say democracy is under serious threat, reporting on democracy itself has emerged as a serious beat for holding government officials accountable and keeping citizens informed. On Monday, Sep. 15, WNYC’s Brigid Berginand other leading journalists will discuss the state of democracy, live in the Greene Space. Get tickets now. 

• The MTA lost nearly $1 billion to fare and toll evasion last year, according to the independent Citizens Budget Commission.
• Turnstile-jumping aside, the subway system this summer recorded its lowest number of “major crimes” since at least 2009.
• Democratic mayoral nominee and ball-knower Zohran Mamdaniis asking FIFA to stop “predatory” World Cup ticket resales and set aside 15% of tickets at a discounted price for locals.
• Here’s the touching backstory of a weird empty building in Williamsburg and the late Polish-born developer who had “a reputation for renting to artists and keeping their rent low.”
• It’s chrysanthemum salad season.
• I want the NorwegianKitKat.
• Don’t boil your wooden spoons.

“Most people are just walking around the hall, because there’s not really much else to do. Some people are talking a bit more, which I guess was the goal.”– ETHAN MYER, A SENIOR AT UNION SQUARE ACADEMY, ON WEEK ONE OF THE PHONE BAN

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