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Option 1: DA's office in the same town as my school (college town)

Option 2: Legal Aid office in major city where I am potentially interested in working in the future. This won't really involve much substantive work and is more client intake/helping clients navigate the court system.

Neither are paid. I am not really sure what to do because I'd rather spent the summer in the city of option 2, but relocating is costly, and the work may be less substantive. I am spending the first half of the summer doing criminal law, and I have a criminal background, so I am afraid if I pick the DA and spend my whole summer in criminal law I will be locked into it and I am not yet dead-set on practicing criminal law. However, the experience will probably be pretty good and I don't have to move.

Any thoughts? Is anyone more valuable/"better" than the other?

You won't be locked into anything based on your 1L summer, and you can always do legal aid-type work as a clinic or externship during the school year. It's all about how you frame things.

If it were me, I'd pick option 1 because why incur the extra expenses? But if you really need to start building ties to city 2 ... maybe.

OP here, probably should've added that I have no ties to the city option 2 is in so building them is a factor. It's a major city but from what I've read on here, ties are still quite helpful there.