Two suburbs - Missouri City and Pearland - have become even more diverse than the city of Houston. Other suburbs aren't far behind.
These findings are from a report released Monday by Rice University researchers, based on an analysis of census data from 1990, 2000 and 2010.
"We are a little United Nations," Pearland Mayor Tom Reid said. "You go to one of our neighborhoods, and there will be a person from Nigeria living next to somebody from India, living next to somebody from Mexico and somebody from Louisiana."
Today the paper runs a story pointing out that this diversity is not reflected in the racial composition of the Houston area delegation to Congress. They also claim that this is deliberate:
Despite the fact that the Houston region is a model of 21st century America, the congressional delegation is stuck in the 1970s. Of the 12 lawmakers who represent a piece of the Houston area, only one has Tejano roots (Republican Bill Flores of Bryan) and two are African Americans (Democrats Al Green and Sheila Jackson Lee of Houston). There are no Asian American representatives, even though the census reflects a rapid growth in the area’s Asian American population.
Nine of the 12 House members — 75 percent — are non-Hispanic white, known in Texas political circles as “Anglo.” Those include eight Republicans and one Democrat (Gene Green of Houston).
Why is the delegation’s composition so out of step with the demographic changes of the region? Blame the Texas Legislature and the federal courts. The Texas Legislature drew a map that minimized the voting power of Houston-area Latinos in order to maximize the voting power of Republicans. And it divided diverse Fort Bend County in an attempt to preserve a safe seat for Republican Pete Olson of Sugar Land while packing as many minority voters as possible into the Harris County-dominated district of Al Green.
Also, two “Anglos” are representing districts that are majority Latino: Gene Green and Blake Farenthold, a Corpus Christi Republican whose district includes the Coastal Bend and the southwestern edges of the Houston metro area.
The federal courts are responsible in that they approved an interim map that formalized the Legislature’s plan that minimized minority representation in Southeast Texas and the Coastal Bend.
