But if you're someone who values nature along with a solid food scene and a strong white collar job base (Software, Hardware, Biotech/Pharma, Healthcare, Accounting, West Coast IB) your only real option is the Bay Area (not just SF, San Jose is also a great city - especially as an Asian American). That's not to say NYC or London are bad, but if you value being able to bike in the mountains in 20 minutes or trail run at a 4,000 ft elevation in 30 minutes, it's hard to beat the Bay Area.
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Denver/Boulder is another obvious one but not as large a job base in a number of areas and, of course, it snows in the winter. Salt Lake City for a smaller city--same.
Boston ticks a lot of the boxes but, again, snow and you're a couple hour drive from real mountains.
100% agree about Boston - it's basically an East Coast version of the Bay Area, but software is very clearly overshadowed by Biotech/Pharma and the tech industry leans cybersecurity+defense (not a problem for me personally, but a harder industry for your stereotypical HN commentator to break into tbh).
And I agree that Denver and SLC are both similar as well, but they don't have as deep and diverse a white collar environment yet. As a Bay Area native, only other metropolitan I've seriously considered living long term are Boston, DC, Seattle, and San Diego. But not all of them are one-to-one similar to the Bay.