I generally just use the Seattle area, tailored slightly to fit the story better, on the theory that an invented location will end up having some whiff of California Doubling to it that I'll never be able to shake anyway. This actually makes it harder if the scope of the story is big enough, as I've got to consider how each neighborhood or suburb interacts with each other (there's a show called Almost Live, that takes this concept and runs with it).
This does mean, on the other hand, that it's easier to keep local attitudes consistent as well. I recall reading a story about the San Francisco area, by some kid who was obviously from the Midwest and didn't realize that it's (A) friggin' impossible to have a full three-car garage there and (B) unnecessary thanks to urban public transit.
So that's three things to consider right there: pop. density and how that affects/is affected by infrastructure, transportation, and local media.
MIA
Evercreek
MIA
Developing a fictional US state or city as a setting was good enough for Sinclair Lewis, so show us yours.
New Wiltshire is a mid-Atlantic state measuring about 80 miles north-south by 120 miles east-west. The biggest city and only consolidated city-county, Georgeport, is in the eastern part of the state. The state capital, Medmenham, is located roughly in the geographic center. Other parts of the state are rural or suburbs of big cities located outside of the state.
Georgeport's municipal population as of 2017 is about 400,000, which is about half of its peak in 1950. The metropolitan area has a population of around two million; the wealthiest suburbs are upriver from the city. Over time, the economy has evolved from shipping to manufacturing to finance, although the city has for the past several decades relied heavily on state aid. Now that Georgeport's dwindling political clout is causing the state legislature to lose interest, the city's political and business establishments are wondering, "So now what?"
The urban and suburban parts of the state tend to vote Democratic, although the state's blue-collar workers tend to be conservative on social issues. While the city used to have a death grip on state politics, the balance of power is shifting to the suburbs. The rural parts of the state are pretty much ignored in Medmenham.
In Georgeport's center city, the streets run parallel and perpendicular to the river. As you go away from the center city, the street grid shifts to due north-south and due east-west and eventually breaks down. The New Wiltshire Turnpike runs southwest-northeast and skirts Georgeport on the east. The Western Belt Expressway begins and ends at the Turnpike and skirts Georgeport on the west. Other expressways enter Georgeport, but the obvious way to connect them did not get built because of the freeway revolts. There is also a subway with two lines, which meet in the center city.
Southtown, the part of Georgeport across the river from the center city, is home to the city's Little Italy, where one of the love interests lives. The other love interest lives about three miles up North Main Street from the city center, in an area sandwiched between the university district and the gayborhood where many millennials live.
The world ended when the prophet said, but you're too sinful to notice.