A downtown area where you live and work nearby and there are plenty of shops, eateries, entertainment and food markets close by. Any college town, many large cities I'd reckon (though you don't want to leave this mysterious 'county metro' area). Beacon, NY if you can deal with being pretty limited without a car and able to work not far from main street. Hudson, NY has a bit of an urban artist up and coming gentrification going on so I hear. Rochester is randomly on my list. Has a bit of an urban center and I hear the surrounding area is decent biking.

Friend just went to Dallas and somewhere else there, said it was nice. City but not too crowded. Stuff may be a bit spread out in Texas though. Plenty other cities... Demoines and Cleveland for some oddball ones.