Well that's a tough one... everyone has different needs.. if affordable living is something you want... Pittsburgh, PA is hard to beat in a metro area.... but you are going to find taxes and liberals... though the town is nowhere near as liberal as it used to be....
Economically its not nearly as humping as other parts of the country.... but a nice house in a good neighborhood can be found for 80k easy... and if you are just starting out you can find pockets of secluded housing in safe areas for 20-30k... One benefit of having a steady decline in population for 50 years... affordable housing.
Transit, well, we have the 10th largest transit system in the country, even though size wise we are nowhere near the top 10 anymore.
Job Growth... Well, honestly, I think the area (not the city per se, but the area... is turning a corner... they finally are realizing that water front property has value and have been cleaning up old mill sites and opening them up for development.... Thanks to USAIR's death here, we have an airport that is much bigger than we need, and so efforts are made to make this a distribution hub and center... which thanks to 100k acres right around the airport, and the new Mon Fayette expressway will make that corridore perfect for that....
You can work and raise a family here on 40k a year, may not be rich, but own a home, have safe schools and low crime (other than a few warzone neighborhoods). In terms of long term carreer opportunities, probably not the greatest choice, you definately can make more elsewhere, and have more opportunity... but housing, taxes and other things generally are higher too.
If I was deciding where to go.. I think I'd check out Montgomery Alabama... that new Hundai plant is opening things wide open down there... and other places like that.
If a "NICE" leave it to beaver small town is what you are after, I'd try places in the Mid West...
That Hyundai plant is the only economic growth Montgomery is going to see for a while.
Montgomery for it's tower, it's new plant and everything else, is still primarily a Black Belt town, and the crime rate has been on an upswing in that city (as opposed to certain cities on the coast)
Because, you have to remember, every major city in the South does take in some inflow for the lower classes from adjoining areas. Montgomery's adjoining rural area is one of the poorest parts of the country. Montgomery will be in 10 years what Jackson was in the 1990s, if you can avoid it, I would,