Look into Dayton, OH. It's extremely affordable, a rust belt town that was smacked by 2008 and again when the local GM plant closed. In the past few years there's a lot of new stuff opening up everywhere - my parents live in the surrounding suburbs, so each time I go back I'm shocked to find something new and relatively cool.
The University of Dayton (private, Catholic school) and Wright State University are there, plus Wright-Patterson AFB, and it's a very walkable downtown area. The entire city is connected with bike paths, and it truly is bike friendly. Musical tours come through, and I attended a Nat Geo talk with my mother once. Not a shortage of "stuff" to do unless you refuse to look.
Lots of outdoor recreation opportunities and an excellent local MetroPark system. Neighborhoods to look into would be downtown, the Oregon District, South Park, Patterson Park, or Twin Towers.
Dayton itself has a smaller airport but you can get just about anywhere you need to go by getting to Atlanta, Minneapolis, or any of the NYC area airports pretty quickly. Cincinnati or Columbus airports are about 1 - 1.5 hr away, depending on traffic.
Despite being in an area where tornados are a concern (April - November is the season) the geology around Dayton keeps it relatively safe. It sits inside of a "bowl" shape river valley, and it's surrounded by hills, and tornados don't really do elevation change. Plus, an ample supply of fresh clean water thanks to a mostly self-sustaining aquifer right below the city.