However, the city is terrible at "technology for technology's sake." Take a look at most of the companies on this list; virtually none of them would have come out of a university research lab. That's not a bad thing; arguably most of HN focuses on the "agile web startup that defines itself on execution" style of company. I personally wanted to work on something with a bit more intellectual substance; startups that focus on research and engineering (as opposed to social coupons or selling stylish eyeglasses online) tend to be near Boston/Austin/Seattle/SF.
Also note that tech journalism coming out of NYC has the finance/media/gov't/social slant as well; I tend to distrust the Times' technology reporting because it's going to inform me about Foursquare instead of a radical new GPS chip company. If the latter did come up, it would be viewed through the lens of investment and profit instead of the underlying tech.