Welcome to small-town USA!

Cityslipper.com is for people who like city-living… but who know—or wonder whether—they would be happier living in a small town. It helps you explore important questions: Can a small town provide the same opportunities as a city? Can you afford to move to a small town? How does life in a small town compare with life in a city? Which small town is right for you?

General-interest stories abound about people who, tired of city life, have given up their jobs and moved to rural communities. Those stories are fascinating because they describe extreme situations: A family moves from the city to a lighthouse on a coastal island. Another family moves to the country to raise cows on a farm.

While the stories entertain, they don’t help with the more mundane question: Can a city slicker become a city slipper without giving up a career, familiar cuisine, quality of services, entertainment, and other creature comforts available in the city?

The short answer is, “Pretty much.” As you might suppose, rural living is dramatically different from city living. The pages of cityslipper.com present some of the experiences of Daniel Gasteiger who enjoyed twelve years of city living in Boston before slipping away to the small town of Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. His experiences illuminate the contrasts between city and country living, and provide encouragement to anyone who might be considering a similar move. At the very least, these stories let even a steadfast city slicker become an armchair city slipper when time permits.

Cityslipper.com isn’t about commuting from the suburbs into the city. Nor is it about commuting to the suburbs from a nearby town… though that’s a close second. It’s about separation from the city; about embracing a small town community, assimilating, and coming to think of city-living as an alternative lifestyle.

On the pages of cityslipper.com, you’ll find resources to help evaluate your own move. There are checklists to compare your options, spreadsheets to calculate the financial impact of a move, and links to web sites of small towns—their community postings, employment services, real-estate listings, and related information that helps to characterize the area.