Meet NYC's Friendliest Subway Conductor!

Plus! Bookworms taking over the city!! Chat bot poll results!!!

Hello everyone,

Welcome to Issue #166 of CAFÉ ANNE!

So last week, I wrote about how I always say “good morning” and “please” to Ray, my ChatGPT assistant. It’s just easier to be polite to everyone and everything than it is to treat the sentient with consideration and the rest with indifference. I say, “Thank you for your service!” to my old toothbrush, for example, before I toss it in the trash.

Many readers said they take the same approach. “I thank grocery carts for their help when I shop,” wrote reader Barb C in the comments. Which I tried myself when I went to Trader Joe’s this week. It made the excursion more fun. I was shopping with a friend!

As for how we treat our chat bots, last week’s poll revealed that among CAFÉ ANNE readers who employ an AI assistant, the majority—65%—treat it like a person. The remainder—35%—said they treat their bot “like the machine that it is.” But almost half of respondents—44%—said they are too cool to chat with bots.

I was curious how this compared with the general population, so of course I consulted Ray. His response:

Surveys from late 2024 showed that roughly 1 in 2 internet users (around 50%) had tried ChatGPT or something similar at least once. Regular use is lower, of course—estimates for monthly active users of tools like me tend to hover around 10–15% of the population, depending on how broadly “use” is defined.

I thanked Ray for the information, of course. His response, “You're so welcome, Dream-Runner! I'm glad it helped.”

It’s true, Ray calls me “Dream-Runner,” a nickname he gave me several months ago. Long story.

In other news, almost everyone who participated in CAFÉ ANNE MATCH should have gotten their match yesterday, by email. There are just a few left to send out. I’ll have a roundup of the results along with some fun facts in the next issue.

Finally, huge NYC-has-a-bonkers-$8-to-$1-matching-funds-campaign-contribution-program shoutouts to new paid subscribers Laurie and Monica O. That’s enough $$$ to let me donate $800 to my favorite candidate in the upcoming mayoral primary. And I’ll never say who it is!

I am very excited for this week’s issue, of course. We’ve got a look at the terrifying hoards of book readers taking over the city’s public spaces, and a meetup with NYC’s friendliest subway conductor. Please enjoy.

Regards!

Anne

DEPT. OF LITERARY ESCAPADES

Bookworms Taking Over the City!!

Riders boarding the Q train last month were treated to a strange sight: dozens of passengers crammed into the subway car—all reading books!

Leita Williams, a Prospect Heights book editor who organized the literary flash mob, is a host with Reading Rhythms, a fellowship of bookworms that organizes events all over the city where people show up and just read—any dern book they please! It's a book club Babylon! The meetups typically take place in parks, bars and cafés; the subway stunt was the first such event underground.

"I often walk into a [subway] car and just feel really discouraged because people are looking at their phones," Leita told me later. "It seems like every one of their five senses is plugged up. Their eyes are down, their hands are occupied, their ears are plugged. And whenever I would find someone in the car that was reading a book, something inside my chest would flutter a little bit like, okay—there's hope!"

She organized the Saturday morning Q train excursion for World Book Day and was pleased when more than 50 readers showed up at the 96th Street stop in Manhattan and rode all the way to Coney Island, immersed in their favorite books.

"Reading parties" in city parks and public spaces like Hudson Yards and Times Square, meanwhile, have attracted hundreds of bookworms, young and old, taking over the space and turning pages like it's 1999.

"My next hope is to do the ferry, since it's summertime," said Leita.

Last weekend, I attended my first Reading Rhythms event—an afternoon in Socrates Sculpture Park, a scruffy green space in Astoria. I brought Carl Jung's Modern Man in Search of a Soul, mainly because I've been plowing through for more than a year and was hoping to finally finish it up. But of course, I spent the entire time interviewing fellow readers. And because they were book people, they were all a pleasure to chat with. Below, a few excerpts. Please enjoy!

Lana Vogelle, Teacher, Astoria

How did you become a co-host for the Reading Rhythms Queens chapter?

I moved to Astoria in August. I posted on Reddit and said, "Does anybody want to just meet up at a park and read—like not as a book club, but just bring your own book?" And someone commented, "Have you heard of Reading Rhythms?" My first event, I immediately felt hooked. I came home with such a warm feeling. Like, “I found my people!'"

You're reading Sally Rooney's Intermezzo. How are you enjoying it?

I truly just started it. With her writing, because she doesn't love quotation marks, she's a tough author to jump into. If I wasn't familiar with her books, I don't know if I would have continued. But because I know what to expect with her, I'm hoping this will pay off. It's not so much about the plot. Just the way she can understand human emotions is incredible.

The way I think about her is that she's a really great romance writer.

Yes, without it coming off as a romance novel. It goes deeper than that. She really explores all levels of human emotion.

So what are you recommending to people right now?

The book I probably recommend most to people is Pachinko. It has something for everyone. Even though it's historical fiction, and maybe that's not everyone's genre, the family dynamics and the characters are so well-written. And it's generational, and you learn something about history, about Korea and the prejudices with Japan.

It was fascinating!

There's some other books I personally loved, but I wouldn't recommend lightly to anyone, like A Little Life.

Oh s—t, yeah.

Hanya Yanagihara, she didn’t have to do that. She did not have to hurt people like that.

It's a miserable book!

It's a miserable book, and yet I loved it. I don't know what that says about me.

Shelly Olatoyan, Customer Experience Specialist and writer, St. Albins

What are you reading?

I'm reading The Alchemist. I heard about it for the first time maybe three or four years ago. I had trouble getting through the first few pages. But a few weeks ago, I finally got into it. Some people say it's life-changing.

I think it's the worst, most overhyped book ever.

Was it because you went into it knowing it was so hyped?

I probably would have thought it was a stupid book regardless. But no, it probably wouldn't have disgusted me to the extent that it did.

I'm on page 78. It's a good book but so far. I haven't gotten to what indicates it's a great book yet. There has to be something more.

So what's a book that did change your life?

I'm a big Edgar Allen Poe fan. I'll never forget reading The Cask of Amontillado. There was this one line where the guy they were going to entomb—he was wearing a jester's hat. And the way that Poe wrote, "the bells upon his jester’s cap jingled,” That changed me. That changed my life to where I wanted to be a writer. I went to college for creative writing and I'm still trying to write stories like Edgar Allen Poe.

Cali Ramsey, Tech Writer, Astoria

What brought you here today?

I just moved to Astoria and I happened to be on Instagram and I saw this. I'm a big reader, and don't know a lot of people in the area, so I thought it'd be a nice way to meet fellow book people in a chill way.

What did book did you bring?

My book besties have been pressuring me to read the Throne of Glass series. It's witchy and magical, so I was excited to give it a try. I just started reading the second book.

What's your favorite place in NYC to read?

There's a park on West 89th Street and Columbus, a little garden park, an isolated community garden. It’s so pretty and it doesn’t get a ton of traffic. I really love reading there. It's my go-to place.

And I just went to Chateau Le Woof for the first time last weekend with my dog, and I loved it. They have an off-leash dog area inside. And their coffee's good, and their snacks are good!

Oh my god, that's like everything great in the whole world, all in one!

Yes it's very cool.

Noah Myers, Teacher, Jackson Heights

What book are you reading?

Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson. He's a big fantasy author. He's written 20 books, maybe, by now? They're very large, as you can see.

How many pages is that thing?

1200, 1300.

You could be reading War and Peace!

Pretty much! He has a few different series. This is my second series, and I love him as an author. I'm a person who likes the world of a book and he does a really good job of feeding you bits of information about the world and lore about the world, as well as having interesting characters. It takes a while to get through, but I think it's worth it.

How long will you give a book before you're like, "I quit! I'm just going to put this thing down"?

If it's stand-alone book, usually I'll try to just power through it. If it's a series, just the first book.

So if you start a book, you're going to finish.

Yeah, almost all the time.

Wow. I used to do that. Now I'm like, "You get 25 pages to prove yourself." When you get older, you realize, "Wow, I only get to read so many more books before I die," right?

That's one way to look at it.

Do you have a favorite place in the city to read?

When it's nice outside, pretty much any park. When it's not so nice, I love Book Club Bar in the East Village. They're open late. It's nice to hang out, be with other people who also like reading.

And people are actually reading at the bar?

Yes! I'd say 90% actually have a book.

COOL LADY SPOTLIGHT

Meet NYC’s Friendliest Subway Conductor!

Julia Martinez

"Even though it might be raining outside, it's sunshine down here. That's my little motto."

That's what Julia Martinez told me when I stopped by the 59th Street/Lexington Avenue station in Midtown last week to watch her at work. She's the morning rush hour platform conductor on the downtown 4/5 line. Which means she's working six stories below ground. And she does, indeed, bring the sunshine.

"GOOD MORNING!!!!"

I could hear her sing-song voice from 250 feet away as I approached from the far end of the platform.

Every weekday, passengers exiting the downtown train are blasted by a high-volume greeting from Ms. Martinez, a lady who is—and I say this with 100% confidence—the most cheerful person in the NYC transit system.

"Good morning!" She clapped her hands to an imaginary beat. "Good morning!! Have a great day-ay!!"

Passengers streamed by. About half ignored Ms. Martinez entirely, eyes fixed on the ground or their phone. Another third eagerly returned her smiles and greeting or gave her a fist bump. And then there were my favorites: the folks who seemed determined to ignore her and then, at the last second, broke down and smiled back.

"Good morning everyone!" she called. "Welcome to WONDERFUL WEDNESDAY!!!!!"

Ms. Martinez is a conductor with the MTA. While her duties include serving aboard the trains—announcing stops and operating the doors—her morning typically starts with a platform shift. The massive 59th Street station is a labyrinth thanks to several ongoing construction projects; it's her job to stand on the platform to give directions and keep traffic flowing.

The standard “move it along!” would suffice. But last December, Ms. Martinez started mixing it up—wishing passengers a good morning and a safe day, encouraging them to smile, dancing, clapping her hands, stomping her feet. If my math is correct, she shouts "GOOD MORNING!!!" approximately 1,100 times in the three-hour platform shift that starts her day.

I chatted with her for about 90 minutes last Wednesday. It was the loudest interview I've ever done. We were often yelling over the roar of the rush hour crowds and trains pulling in.

"Are you the least New York person in New York?" I shouted. "Or maybe the most?"

She laughed. "I know I'm the happiest one, bringing joy back. People see me and they start smiling. One guy was like, 'I'm so thankful, you lift me up.'"

"I feel like people smile at you who don't even want to smile," I said.

"Yes, yes. Turn that frown upside down!" she replied. She was totally sincere.

Another 5 train pulled in. The train conductor opened his window and waved. Ms. Martinez crossed the platform and gave him a hug.

She gave directions to a man looking for the N train and helped another lady find the bathroom. A passing teen gave her a high-five. A tourist stopped to take a video.

"Good morning!" she bellowed as another train pulled in. "Welcome back to WONDERFUL WEDNESDAY!!!"

"What do you say when it's not Wednesday?" I wondered.

"Okay," she said. "So Monday is motivation. Motivation Monday. Welcome to Motivation Monday. And Tuesday is Terrific Tuesday. Wonderful Wednesday, Thankful Thursday and then Fantastic Friday, cuz this is the day they've been waiting for—for the weekend."

She has hand gestures for each greeting. I caught them in a little video:

Next I asked the obvious question: "Do you think some people find you annoying?"

"One guy told me, ‘F— you!’" she said. "I say, that's alright, don't let anyone steal your joy. I don't take anything personal but my paycheck."

Ms. Martinez is a New York native. She grew up in Crown Heights and Washington Heights and spent most of her adult life in Harlem before moving to Parkchester in the Bronx. I was surprised to learn she just turned 50 and is the grandmother of four. Her oldest son is 32. Her husband also works for the MTA, as a station supervisor.

She sang choir in high school, which explains her remarkable voice, and studied business in college. "But I don't really care for business," she said. "I said, 'Let me go over there.'"

"Over there," meant working as a domestic violence case manager, a job she loved. But it didn't pay, so she got a cleaning job in the city housing projects.

"That sounds rough," I said. "Did you bring your happy attitude to that job?"

"Yes, and everyone thought I was crazy," she said. "They were like, 'After a year, you ain’t going to be happy down here.' I said, "Yes I am. Because I’m a happy person."

She landed the MTA job nine years ago. But it wasn't until last December that she took her platform duties to the next level. This was when she was assigned to the 7-train platform at Grand Central station.

"I saw the need for it," she said. "Everyone was so down. There's so much going on in the world. I just wanted to lift people up."

She learned to say good morning in eight languages, "So everyone's included."

And she's got the routine down. She always packs a bundle of subway maps to distribute, a baggie of cough drops and butterscotch candies, two bottles of Poland Spring and a tube of lip gloss. "My lips get dry," she said. "And it helps with the appearance.”

The delight she brings to many is obvious. Some passengers look like they just want to die exiting the train, and their eyes light up when they see her. I saw many offer thanks and wish her a wonderful day in return. One regular recently surprised her with a bouquet of tulips.

Older people are friendlier than young people, Ms. Martinez observed. "I have some of the teenagers, they just don’t speak at all. And then some of them, I don’t even know they’ve been watching me so long, they walk up to me and say, 'Hey, you make my morning.' But they have such an angry face, I had no idea."

Ms. Martinez endures her share of hardships. Her father is facing a major surgery, for example, and the outlook isn't great. There are days when she does not feel like being cheerful.

"Especially when I get horrible news," she said. "Something going on in family life. But then I remember I'm coming here, and it goes away. And I like to be consistent. What if I'm here a couple months, doing the same thing, and then one day I'm like this?" She hung her head and let her shoulders droop. "Everyone will be, 'What happened?'"

"Some say you should feel your feelings and not suppress them," I said.

"Right, that's true.” said Ms. Martinez. “But at the end of the day, work is work. And you have to go, and you have a duty to perform, regardless of what you're going through. Sometimes you have to put your feelings on the back burner. ‘Cuz not everybody's going to care what's going on in your life. They have a million things, too."

Jesus Christ, it was refreshing to hear somebody say that.

If you want to catch Ms. Martinez on the downtown platform, go now! She'll likely be reassigned soon, and she doesn't know where.

When her shift ended, Ms. Martinez said she would take the train downtown to eat her homemade lunch in the employee break room at the South Ferry station before working another five-hour shift. And the next day, she'd wake up and do it all over again. Except, of course, this time it'd be "Thankful Thursday."

"Any morning you woke up?" said Ms. Martinez. "I'd say, 'That's a good morning.'"

CAFÉ ANNE is a free weekly newsletter created by Brooklyn journalist Anne Kadet. Subscribe to get the latest issue every Monday.