Nah. I think it is because New York is our biggest city with 8 million people. There are just too many people to sort through so nobody talks. You can't make a generalization about the entire east coast based on NYC. In smaller places if you are walking down the street and you pass a stranger most of the time you smile at them and say hello.
This could also partially explain Russian unwillingness to smile. Most of Russians were born and raised in relatively big cities, not in suburbia where "friendliness to neighbor" cultural protocol makes sense. There are just too many neighbors to be friendly with in Russia.
In San Francisco they ask you 'how's it going, man!', in Chicago they shout 'WHAT?' and in New York they don't even talk to you.
So it is a sliding scale of friendliness, from West to East.