60-Second Critic: MoveToPhilly.com
What do you do once you’ve moved to and fallen in love with a new city? Convince others to come, of course. For the past 10 months, ex-Brooklynite Laris Kreslins has been taking prospective Philly residents on tours he customizes to their interests, from dog runs to meeting singles. The trips may incorporate Kreslins’s errands and chats with his friends, as well as stops at the Whispering Bench in Fairmount Park, Young’s Candies in Brewerytown, and any open houses he spots (though he points out that he accepts no money from realtors—or anyone else but you). Cruising around an unfamiliar city in the back of a stranger’s banana-yellow Mazda Protégé may seem dicey, but Kreslins’s genial spirit and mastery of the city keep it from seeming too unprofessional. This bare-bones operation isn’t for the inflexible: It took us two weeks to get on board, and he cancelled once. ($20/person, per hour)
