It’s got everything you listed. It’s a small enough city to get around easily, but big enough that there’s always more going than than you can actually do. Lots of visual arts and theater and music, both bigger institutions and more grassroots ones. A couple of queer bars and good lgbtq+ community behind those as well. Decent hiking within a 20-minutes drive and bigger hikes not much further away. CT ski areas are about an 80-minute drive away, and nice Vermont areas about three hours. Lots of good food too, as others have mentioned, including restaurants, food carts, and farmers markets.