How would "The Last Leaf" by O. Henry be different if it were in a different setting?

The setting at the time was an important factor for the
type of people that the story was about; change the type of people, and you change the
entire meaning and possibly plot of the story itself.  O. Henry sets the story in
"Greenwich Village" which he satirically describes as a place
that

"the art
people soon came prowling, hunting for north windows and eighteenth-century gables and
Dutch attics and low rents. Then they imported some pewter mugs and a chafing dish or
two from Sixth avenue, and became a
'colony.'"

His tone rather
makes fun of these artists that come seeking low rent and a place to paint.  It is a
community of struggling artists that band together under their struggle to make it big
or known in their artistry.  Because of this, Sue and Johnsy are roommates.  They are
both struggling artists.  In the time frame that O. Henry wrote, two women roommates
weren't very common, but probably possible more in Greenwich Village than in other
places.  If it were set elsewhere, the liklihood of Sue and Johnsy being together as
roommates would have been rarer.  Then, to have an old bachelor man living right below
them was also unusual; Behrman was another struggling artists. The nature of the setting
provided a wonderful place for a bunch of rather random types of characters to be
realistically thrown together.

If it had been set elswhere,
the probability of these three main characters living so close together would have been
unlikely.  O. Henry needed a place for them to be, and for them to be artists, for the
ending of Behrman painting the leaves right outside the window to become a reality.  If
it had been a house in the country, all spread out with no neighbors, it would have been
unlikely that Behrman would have been in their house, and that he would have painted a
leaf.  The setting is crucial in throwing these characters together in a unique artistic
friendship, and providing a close proximity for the leaf to have been painted.  Take
that away, and the entire story would have changed; it would have had to have been much
longer, with more creative reasons for these characters to have known each other, and
included a lot more stretches of believability.

I hope that
those thoughts helped; good luck!