The typical tech person only hangs out with young highly-educated transplants in NYC. Racially, those demographics are fairly similar between NYC and Boston. Philly simply does not have the high concentration of top-tier human capital that Boston or NYC offer. Good luck finding a half-decent tech job in Philly.
If anything, Boston universities have ramped up their diversity hiring, so a typical highly-educated group will include a ton of racially diverse people. Intellectually however, Boston has stricter staratification between blue collar and white collar professionals than NYC/Philly.
I'm for real. I'm trying to be better in how I communicate. And clearly, I still have work to do. And no, I am not a recruiter, just a distracted engineer like everyone else on here.
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As for the Brooklyn & LIC bit, it's from personal experience. I have moved around a lot over the last few years, and have found myself comparing these cities side-by-side. Manhattan is most people's image of NYC. LIC and Brooklyn are quieter, more human scale, have more green spaces and the pace of things slower.
I didn't mention Chicago because it's a disservice to call it NYC-lite. Chicago is distinctly itself in a way that makes the comparison feel unfair. Additionally, being in NYC-lite implies wanting the same geographic advantages.