Despite the diversity of NYC as a whole, my anecdotal experiences suggest that people can still harbor those sorts of unconscious thoughts while living their entire lives in a "diverse" city. I say "diverse" because there are lots of enclaves in NYC, sometimes with stark divides across streets. (See the Dot Map [1]). Outside of gentrifying/gentrified areas like Long Island City or Prospect Heights, or white flight areas like Morris Park, neighborhoods look rather homogeneous. (Exercise for the reader: see if you can find out where the Landmark/Historic Districts are in Brooklyn.)
Unfortunately, last time it was posted, it was noted that that map has drawing bias. The dots are drawn in order of race, not randomly, and so the earliest color dots are underrepresented and the later dots overrepresented. I'm afraid I can't remember the which order they are drawn in. Just something to keep in mind.
Interesting, I wasn't aware of that, thanks for bringing it up. From the code[0], it looks like it's drawn in the order [White, Black, Asian, Hispanic, Other]. You're definitely right, that would skew things.
[1] http://demographics.coopercenter.org/DotMap/