If I did ever move back to the US I think I'd pick one of these second tier cities too. Small town living is just too provincial for me but I think you get a lot of the upsides of living in NYC or LA or SF without a lot of the downsides when you live in a place like Pittsburg.
Not to mention that cities like NYC or LA are so expensive and so gentrified now that artists and other creative people can't afford to live there anymore so they're a lot less interesting than they were 20 years ago anyway. There's a lot of really creative and offbeat electronic music coming out of the American Midwest right now for example.
Not to mention that cities like NYC or LA are so expensive and so gentrified now that artists and other creative people can't afford to live there anymore so they're a lot less interesting than they were 20 years ago anyway. There's a lot of really creative and offbeat electronic music coming out of the American Midwest right now for example.