So your gold standard is "a city where I code in bars and parks until the middle of the night?" Yeah, I think there's more than one place in the US where you can do that.
Nashville, Memphis, Miami, Denver, Portland, Honolulu, Houston, Austin, Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles, San Diego, Seattle all spring to mind immediately, and that's not even counting the big two -- New Orleans and Vegas.
Also, for what it's worth, I've been coding in bars for over a decade in places like Memphis, TN, Albany, NY, etc., and haven't ever been a problem.
Glad you like New York, and I'm in no way trying to disparage it, but the OP does make a point. That said, everywhere is different, and New York undoubtedly offers a myriad of things not found in other places, and vice versa.
I DID almost move to Chicago once...
Well to be fair, you didn't mention anything about coding in a bar that late.
> there are very few cities in which you can code at a bar and not be weird (which means things like accessible power plugs)
Bars having power outlets is a function of the city they reside in? And I think perhaps you've been living in that SF/LA/NYC bubble too long, it's not as uncommon in the less civilized parts of the country as you may think. Hell, a lot of bars in those backward cities have wifi too!
> there are very few cities in which there's hustle and bustle, even at 3am.
Well you've got me there.
Sorry, don't mean to be super critical, but your "NYC is the only place in the country where you can do these things!!!" mentality struck a nerve.
Speaking of unspoken constraints, I also _need_ to be in a big city. My rule of thumb is "does it have a subway?" If not, it's probably not big enough. That constraint alone cuts it down to fifteenish cities. Not a hard-and-fast rule, but I grew up on a cattle farm. I know that life isn't for me, at all.
That's what I figured, and that's fine. I'm just a little sensitive because usually when these topics come up it comes off as "NYC is the height of great living."
You'd make do too if you had to. Suicide isn't even an option for a lot of people, because preparations and privacy are hard to come by, and they might not even have the mobility to make it happen.
I just wanted you to be aware of what advantages you do have, and what things are really a need (food, water, medical supplies and/or medications, shelter, care if you need it) and what aren't. Other than that live the happiest life that is possible for you!
Pittsburgh is wonderful. There's a lot wrong with it, but a lot of right too. It is certainly very cheap to live, and there's a lot going on. We even have a Techstars-affiliated incubator, which used to offer a really, really good deal. My first startup, CloudFab, went through it years ago. That said, SF is still the best place in the world to do a startup: every city says "We may not be SF, but we have X!" X is _never_ enough to make up for not being SF. I said it when I lived there too, and now that I've lived in SF, I know that's just deeply, deeply wrong. That doesn't mean you _can't_ do it, but it's a handicap.
However, living in a place is very rarely about 'economic sense.' I have a _need_ to live in NYC. I've gotten more work done in the two weeks I've lived here than I did in the entire six months I lived in SF, and maybe about a third of what I did in LA. The hustle, bustle, and opportunities are endless.
Last night I woke up at ten am, did my laundry, then went to a juice bar, worked for a few hours, walked around, ended up literally coding on a bar while watching the US. vs. Ghana game, then took the train over to Herald Square and coded in the park. It was a beautiful evening. Around midnight, walked up to Times Square to squeak in some power before all the stores closed, then worked in another park until 3am, and took the train home. You can't really do that anywhere else, at least in the states.
Oh, and I'm saving about 25% on my rent by moving to Brooklyn from San Francisco, and I'd be saving 60% if I had still lived in the Mission when I left.