Frankie made some good observations but I would like to add a few others based upon my years of hobbying in the city.  Boston is becoming an increasingly wealthy city, not that it was ever really a poor one.  There are a lot of hobbyists here that have the means to actively engage in hobbying, some several times each week if they desire.  In addition, Boston, for some unknown reason, has not had a vibrant local provider population, it was a very much hit and miss city with the good providers showing up on occasion but with most encounters being of the forgettable variety.  I think that the second observation is what gave early traveling providers a sizeable opening into the city, once the word got out, more providers traveled to the city.  The local provider offerings have gotten much better in the last couple of years, with vast improvement in the last year.  There already were some very good and repected providers working in and around Boston, but that number seems to be growing larger lately.
    Another observation that I have about Boston after having traveled to cities like NYC and Miami to hobby and having read the board for NYC and other east coast cities, is that Boston area hobbyists seem to be more cultured and civil than hobbyists from other east coast cities.  This observation is not intended as a slam since it is based upon my own observations with no data to back those observations up.  That I would arrive at such a conclusion based upon my experiences surprised even me, given the image of Bostonians as clannish or insular.  I guess times have changed in Boston.