One Texas City Wants Random Acts of Kindness to be Reported
Lots of cities have apps now for reporting complaints like potholes and barking dogs, but one Texas city is adding a happy new twist. They want everyone who lives there to report random acts of kindness. Think it'll catch on?
Arlington is sandwiched right between Dallas and Fort Worth, and has a population of about 400,000. The new Ask Arlington app launched several months ago, and lets people report things like loose animals, water main leaks, overgrown weeds, and malfunctioning traffic lights. And rather than letting the app be just place to let out the gripes, the City of Arlington decided to ask residents to report the good stuff too.
The Ask Arlington App lets people post the nice things that people around town are doing, and they're hoping the app-based random act of kindness movement continues to spread. People who use the app are reporting good deeds like litter pickup, strangers who pickup restaurant tabs, and people who take care of neighbors after surgery. And one firefighter was able to give a 94-year old woman a ride on a fire truck to help with her bucket list.
Random acts of kindness are not new, but reporting them on a city-run app is not something we see very often. If Lufkin and Nacogdoches started doing this, the app would be overflowing with reports of good deeds, right? Yes! Because you are nice and other people would report you.
We'll keep an eye on the Arlington app to see if those hometown Dallas Cowboys fans get reported this fall giving up parking spaces, sharing tailgating food, and paying for each other's beers and things. Texans are pretty cool like that.