Beep-beep-beep-beep.
The streetcar door was closing, its little red light flashing. Rain was starting to come down harder. The woman ran toward the door, feet sloshing through puddles, clearly trying to make it before the tram left. The man closest to the automatic doors stuck his umbrella out to make sure they didn’t close, and she made it onto the tram.
But this scene is typical for Vienna.
Below, I’ll look at a couple of situations from major cities where I’ve lived and experienced/witnessed those random acts of kindness. While they’ve happened in every major city where I’ve lived, I want to focus here on standout examples from cities definitely not known for being “friendly” (especially the second one).
Vienna
While I’ve always found Austria to be a warm and welcoming place, Vienna isn’t really known for its friendliness. This is a view for which I am pretty sure those infamously impassive servers at classic coffee houses are ninety-nine percent to blame. But in my year there (plus many visits before that), Vienna had its bright little moments.
The grocery store employee who wishes you a schönes Wochenende (nice weekend), the pub staff and customers who help a distraught patron find their wallet or glasses or phone, the resident who pauses to help tourists navigate the U-Bahn (subway) system, the shopper with the cart loaded with stuff who lets you jump to the front of the line with your piddly two items.
True stories, of course. These are acts of kindness that happen everywhere, even in so-called “unfriendly” cities.
New York
New York, where I lived for several years, is also not exactly known as the friendly capital of the world. I once heard the advice, “Don’t make eye contact!” It’s a behavior that many people follow when just passing each other on the street.
But there is plenty of door-holding (both in buildings and on public transit) and “oh-no-you-go-ahead”-ing. More than once, I had total strangers help me lug a massive suitcase up the subway stairs.
When a guy on a bike snatched my phone out of my hand in the ten seconds it was out of my bag (note to self: never have phone out while standing at edge of sidewalk), at least two guys across the street instinctively dashed after the thief when I started running and shouting “He stole my phone!” All to no avail, but I appreciated their effort.
Pay it Forward
These small gestures are refreshing, and help keep my faith in humanity going amid the hustle and bustle. And if I am the one who benefits from that act of kindness, sometimes it even makes my day, or turns around an otherwise not-so-great day. At the very least, it makes me smile and want to pay it forward.
Cities are not without their problems, but I feel like they get a bad rap for being unfriendly.
Sure, sometimes a city is a cold, unsympathetic, busy, selfish, everybody’s-rushing-to-do-their-own-thing-so-fend-for-yourself kind of place; I’m not disputing that.
But that doesn’t mean that basic human kindness and courtesy are absent. It’s there right in front of you if you keep your eyes open–and if you do something nice yourself.
This post was originally published in 2015 on Suite.io, and updated in 2018.
