You’re reading the second edition of What’s Good?, a weekly recap of things I’ve written, read, watched, listened to … you get the idea.

READ

This week my colleague Jose Martinez wrote about the 181st Street subway station in Manhattan, which in the evenings is sometimes used by people to shoot up drugs. 

He met and spoke with Lysha, 20, who was huddled inside a doorway on a platform injecting heroin into her left arm when he found her.

“It’s not something I’m proud of – I want to turn my life around,” she told Jose. 

That subway station is just a few blocks from OnPoint NYC, one of the first two supervised overdose prevention centers in the country. When it closes, Lysha and others go to the next best place: the subway. 

Jose told me he decided to visit the station after it was mentioned in passing at an MTA board meeting by Janno Lieber.

“Within two minutes, I encountered a young woman shooting up in a doorway,” he said. To me, that shows the importance of on-the-ground, and underground, reporting. It was refreshing to read a story about an overdose prevention center that featured so many people experiencing addiction.

And Jose’s reporting led to some action — Mayor Eric Adams tweeted that the centers should be open 24 hours a day.

“A crisis doesn’t wait and neither should we,” the mayor wrote Wednesday.

Other interesting stories from this week:

New York has a LOT of that stinky hand sanitizer left. (POLITICO)

New York City remains in a ‘housing emergency.’ (THE CITY)

Martini? Espresso martini? Dirty Shirley? This summer, just drink whatever the hell you want! (Bon Appetit)

LISTEN

My songs on repeat this week:

“Give” by Harari

“Overcome” by Wayne Marshall (the entire Greensleeves Diwali is great)

“I’m Gonna Miss Your World” by Art Feynman

This is HERO WORSHIP, where I can talk about sandwiches I enjoy. This started last week with THE SANDWICH, and while my enthusiasm for that is unique, I do enjoy talking about things that I’ve eaten.

“Unreal Reuben” at Smile of the Beyond , 86-14 Parsons Blvd., Briarwood

Smile of the Beyond opened in 1972 as the first vegetarian diner in New York City. It is still run by followers of Sri Chinmoy, a spiritual leader whose home base was in Queens. (I do not endorse any religion or spiritual movement, just sandwiches, so feel free to do you own reading on Chinmoy too.)

I’ve spent many lunches at the Panorama of My Silence-Heart Cafe, the coffee shop and cafe also run by his followers up the street. Back in my DNAinfo (RIP) days, I’d camp out there for a few hours. They even ran this deal where if you paid $100 in cash you got a $115 credit, and I may even have some money left behind the counter. But I had never been to the diner until this week.

It’s a bright and airy space, with cards carrying Chinmoy’s words of encouragement on the table. It was nearly full on a random weekday. The host said they’d been busier after Covid — more people focused on their health and going vegetarian or vegan, he guessed.

I’m not a vegetarian, but I was convinced mostly by the name “Unreal reuben.” I later learned it’s called that because it uses the specific brand of vegan deli meat called Unreal. Real or not, it was a great sandwich. I’d return for breakfast, too.

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Thank you for reading! And thank you for those who sent along thoughts on the first edition of What’s Good? last week! Here’s some early feedback:

“What is that thing you sent me? I thought it was spam and almost deleted it.” - Mom

“You meant ‘affected.’” - a friend pointing out a grammatical mistake

Of course you can always send me your thoughts, good or bad.