Still more bad KHAS analysis

This time courtesy of the Houston Press:

White Houston's Love Affair with the Suburbs Officially Over, Richard Connelly, Houston Press

But what about all those minorities white people have to live with in the city? "Houston is now the most ethnically and culturally diverse metropolitan area in the nation," Klineberg said. "The surveys indicate a growing acceptance of this remarkable new reality.

The key word here is region As noted in this story:

Houston region is now the most diverse in the U.S. Jeannie Kever, Chron.com

Two suburbs - Missouri City and Pearland - have become even more diverse than the city of Houston.

The reality is that upwardly mobile, traditional minority groups are looking outside the Beltway and into the suburbs as their historic neighborhoods are becoming more and more gentrified. You are more likely to find multi-ethnic neighborhoods in the suburbs than you are inside Loop 610. Those same suburbs that have been wrongly stereotyped (by Connelly and his ilk) as lily-white havens of sameness. At one time that might have held true but anyone living in today's suburbs will tell you that it's certainly not the case.


Not that anything was excepted of Village Voice Houston, but still, it's worth pointing out that the shoddy analysis isn't limited solely to ChronBlog.  As a matter of fact, it's spreading everywhere:

Study: Houston supports mass transit, ethnic relations. Molly Ryan, Houston Business Journal

Houston is in the midst of an idealistic shift. Significantly more Houstonians support improvements in mass transit and are optimistic about diversity levels than in the past, according to a new study from the Kinder Houston Area Survey conducted by Rice University

As my friend Kevin pointed out, the lede of this story overstates what's happening within the numbers. If anything Houston is about where it's always been, with people still liking things, and wanting other things that they don't have to pay for.  No idealistic shift there.

I would argue that, if a shift is occurring, this survey would not be the place to identify it.