I'm currently in Ithaca, in the middle of western NY, and I really love it here.
PROS
-The weather. Generally, it is beautiful here. The horribly hot/humid part of the summer doesn't last too long, and the winter is actually milder here than it is in the surrounding country-- we'll get a couple of inches of snow when a few towns over are getting dumped on to the tune of a foot or more. Apparently we get some sort of "reverse lake effect." Go figure. There are also a ton of beautiful hiking trails here through the gorges formed by rivers and streams in the hills. Today, it's the middle of autumn, the leaves are gorgeous, and it's going to be in the mid-to-high 70s. ...I should really get up to campus to exercise, and check out all the undergrads busting out their miniskirts and shorts. ;D
-The colleges. Yeah, it can be kind of a pain having so many undergrads around, but having two major colleges (Cornell University and Ithaca College) in the area means there's better entertainment, better restaurants, and high standards of education.
-The food. We're surrounded by farming communities, and the farmer's market is the size of a small mall and runs from April to December. While that's going on, we do 90% of our shopping there. It's amazing. You can buy pretty much anything there except cleaning supplies and toilet paper-- not just vegetables, but bread, meat, artwork, clothing... it's all natural and organically grown/raised, and it's all delicious. Plus, you actually get to know the people who are producing the food you eat-- you can't sell anything at the IFM that you haven't made/grown yourself. And to top it all off, for a small town, there are a TON of good restaurants.
-The people. Me and the wife are crunchy hippie liberal intellectual types, and there are a lot of like-minded people in this area. Just in the last year, we've been able to make a lot of friends, and while our social circle varies in political outlook and worldview, they're almost all educators and therefore have a fairly high baseline for intelligence and education. WE LIKES US THEM SMART PEOPLESES.
-Downtown. As in we actually have one. There's restaurant row, which has about ten restaurants ranging from decent to excellent. Right next to it is the town commons with a ton of coffeehouses, bookstores, clothing/furniture stores, more restaurants, you name it. There is a gorgeous old theater that hosts a ton of events, concerts, plays, etc., and a bunch of excellent bars down the street from that. And there's the DeWitt Mall, which is an old school converted to commercial space-- shops and cafes and a small grocery store on the bottom floor, and offices and studios above that. The best thing about downtown? We can walk there from our house. And then walk back after going out for dinner and drinks.
The cons:
-The isolation. Sweet jebus, it's a damn good thing I like it here, because it takes a minimum of five hours to get ANYWHERE else worth going to. Toronto, Philly, NYC, Western Mass (my old stomping grounds), DC... all 5-6 hours' drive. Anywhere closer than that (Syracuse, Buffalo, Albany, Rochester) really isn't worth the effort. And we're kind of in an oasis of nice in an ocean of Crazy Jesus Land.
-The music scene. I admit, I got spoiled in Western MA-- a good 1/2 to 2/3 of the indie bands touring the east coast come to Northampton. I'm lucky if we get three or four shows a year I really want to go to here.
That's really about it for the downside, though. I really like it here, and I really hope my wife gets tenure at IC...