A city of ~200,000 people if you include the outlying rural areas, in which you can go from the several block wide downtown to farmland in 4-5 miles in the proper directions. Fifteen minutes from another city of 60,000 which is very much a state college town. Forty minutes away from a city of nearly 500,000 people. Granted the city of ~200,000 has a major university and a number of biotech companies.

I think living in a big city is the standard that most people here consider normal. It's like living in the first world. We know that there are people from India who visit but we still see being from the first world as normal. When you have the choice between living in a place with memetic diversity or not living in such a place the choice seems obvious.