The tech sector and the energy surrounding it is palpable here; it's incredible. But, thankfully, it's not the only dominant voice in the city. I hear more and more people at every meetup I attend saying they moved from San Francisco to escape the "tech-centric" culture there. While Silicon Valley is likely still "the" place to be for tech, I'm glad NYC is emerging as a viable East coast alternative.
I think it's unfair to "tech" to label Silicon Valley's unique tech culture as merely "tech-centric". Just because tech is a big part of it doesn't mean that all of the rest of the cultural encrustations of the SV frat-house environment are non-existent or unimportant. There are, and have been, many "tech-centric" urban areas that are still incredibly different from silicon valley.
Most of the startups based here are very much fluffy and will vaporize when the VC/angel bubble pops. They are either "lifestyle" businesses (read: small businesses. make some money but should never have taken VC, because they will never have a real exit) or just e-commerce masquerading as "tech."
Most of the startups in NYC are going to do much better, they are profitable AdTech, Fintech, Fashion startups. Or the occasional ecommerce play. I would say in general less Facebooks, here but more profitable companies
Anything that changes NYC's economy to make it less dependent upon those who play with money is a good thing. I'm even happier that tech companies are finding NYC a place with plenty of talent.
There was a pretty interesting, though potentially biased report about the impact of NY Tech on the job market here: http://www.nyctecheconomy.com/
I wish the NYTimes was better than that log-based chart of job recovery by sector (or whatever that non-linear scale is).