Boise is one of the future technology hubs that will start getting a lot of attention. related?
Pittsburgh has become a technology hub. And that is NOT bringing the sort of voters here that one would prefer to have. Trust me on that.
We visited Boise earlier this summer. My wife fell in love with it. It is a really lovely city with a close-in airport, excellent restaurant district, safe downtown, affordable homes. Metropolitan Boise (Ada and Canyon counties) has around 700,000 people, so it is not a backwater.
It is only a 10 hour drive between Boise and the SF Bay Area, and about 6 hours (440 miles) east of Portland.