I think Austin is the next tech hub. The weather is better than NYC, vibrant food scene, large pool of talent/graduating students, readily available cheap/24hr food and coffee (especially near campus).
I just got to Austin, and may be leaving at the beginning of the year, but as a city, the place is unreal. It's now bigger than San Francisco, but still feels like a town, which I prefer... Nothing like the Valley, but they say 2011 was kind of a watershed moment for the Austin tech scene with three web-based companies going public (shift away from enterprise tech). We'll see how that goes back into the ecosystem...
During Internet 1.0, Austin was a tech hub. Dell, and a bunch of tech consulting / software companies. There office parks outside of the city that used to house the tech scene. Inside the city seems to be where the new action is. Another plus for Austin is the labor pool is overqualified for the job opportunities (according to my Austinite friend). If it were #2 instead of New York, I'd move there in a second.
