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Comment by wavefunction | Hacker News Reader

I tell people from outside Texas that Houston is the most diverse city in the US and they act like I'm shamelessly lying. With all the stuff there is about Texas government and politics to criticize, it's a very unique part of the country under significant tensions pulling the place and people in multiple contradictory directions.

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In practice it really isn’t. The city sprawls endlessly with no mass transit, so you end up staying in your corner of the greater Houston area all the time, which is 90% suburbs with no walkability. Urban Houston is more diverse yes, but once you get beyond 610 you lose all city benefits and all the neighborhoods are homogeneous and monocultural. Houston is ok. Greater Houston is a terrible place. Great food though.

Sounds like the Bay Area.

Sounds like most American metropolitan areas.

It used to frustrate me but now it just makes me laugh when I see people talk about Dallas, Houston like they aren't two of the more diverse and largest metros in the country.

Yet when my Indian friends were getting a housing tour in Dallas, they were told how diverse the area is: they have Protestant, Baptist, and Catholic Churches in this neighborhood!

That didn’t impress them much (in fact it did the opposite) and they stayed in SF.

It certainly depends on the area. I'm within about 2 miles of a Buddhist template and multiple mosques. There are another sixty churches in the same area, but it is what it is.

It not about the religion. It’s that a local thought that was indicative of diversity. It spoke to the local mindset.

Dallas is very different than Houston and I made no claims about Dallas.

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