By Dan Eldridge
Rush hour in midtown Manhattan has just shifted into full gear, and a sea of bright-yellow taxicabs streams down Fifth Avenue. But on the corner of East 52nd Street, two New Yorkers—Katie and Allie—are climbing into an entirely different sort of cab. It’s a vintage British taxi painted dark forest green, driven by author and reality TV star Leon Logothetis, who relocated to L.A. from London six years ago. Over the next 20 minutes, Katie and Allie will traverse west in the green taxi, then head south in bumper-to-bumper traffic through the neon-lit heart of Times Square and down Seventh Avenue.
It’s a ride that’s worth about $12 in Manhattan, but when the cab finally arrives at its downtown destination, neither woman pays. Instead, Logothetis gives them each a hug before posing for pictures, and then offers up two free copies of his new autobiography, Amazing Adventures of a Nobody.
Unusual? Without a doubt. And that’s because this particular vehicle—officially known as the Kindness Cab—is anything but a typical New York taxi.
Manhattan was the launch point for a three-week cross-country trip to L.A. in the Kindness Cab, offering free rides in 11 cities along the way. Logothetis set out October 24 to spread a bit of altruistic goodwill throughout the United States, a country that had been particularly kind to him during the filming of his reality TV show, also titled Amazing Adventures of a Nobody, back in 2007.
Of the show, he explains, “I was required to travel across the country on a budget of just $5 a day. And so of course I had to rely on the kindness of strangers for things like food, shelter and transportation.”
Logothetis claims the experience literally transformed his life. And so in an effort to repay the positive energy and selflessness he encountered, he came up with a philanthropic angle: The taxi’s meter ran whenever passengers were onboard, and Logothetis donated the total amount—around $11,500—to two nonprofit organizations.
“The Kindness Cab touched so many lives,” Logothetis says, cruising down an L.A.-area freeway on the tour’s final day. “I connected with so many people, and the Cab put lots of smiles on lots of people’s faces. To me, that’s what it’s really all about.”
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