Try going to some shows or something you get excited about. I'm from New Hampshire, but travel to the city fairly regularly for concerts and Celtics games, etc. I tend to be a bit of an introvert and like to keep to myself for the most part, but I have friendly interactions unintentionally at these events all the time. I go to metal shows at the Middle East (Cambridge) often and always have friendly chats/doobie sessions start up outside waiting for the doors to open. I'll hit a bar up before going in to the Garden for a game, and will have chatted with a local at said bar for a while, and bars are usually not my thing. I feel these situations could have blossomed in to friendships to some extent if I was local and could have extended an invitation to meet up with them again.

Good luck, but don't give up on it. You don't have to.