I think it's hard to argue that San Francisco is not the major city most open to cultural diversity in the country. The Bay Area is very diverse ethnically. New York perhaps but its economy is dominated by finance which sucks the air out. The Bay Area's openness is key to the success of Silicon Valley. Stanford certainly has a lot of positive influence, sure, but there's more to the Bay Area than Palo Alto.

EDIT: To clarify not just ethnic diversity, but diversity of opinion and openness to all kinds of cultural diversity. For example I see a non-trivial number of non-straight people in startups, and it's pretty easy to argue many parts of the world claiming they want to create a new Silicon Valley are not as embracing as the Bay Area when it comes to sexual identity.

San Francisco is in the top 10 most diverse cities in the country, but both San Jose and Oakland are more diverse than SF.

Yep, and the Houston area is now even more diverse than LA and NYC. Here's hoping a couple decades from now the kids of the current residents will be thought leaders in a local version of Silicon Valley.

So I'll have to respectfully take a different view on Houston having lived there for three years (admittedly returning to the Bay Area in 2007). There's certainly diversity in ethnicity in that there are large population of whites, african-americans and hispanics. Outside of those groups there's a large fall-off. But more importantly a key weakness of Houston is its lack of cultural diversity. I found to be the most parochial city of 4million people I'd ever experienced (and I've lived in a lot of places). It is not really remotely comparable to something like Silicon Valley in that regard, sadly.

However, I share your hope that the increased ethnic diversity, and the general nationwide cultural trends of young people being more open to new things and will become thought leaders. Of course my reluctant skepticism comes from what I experienced (great anecdote for another venue) of the control of thought leadership by a very narrow good-ole-boy network which appears pretty well entrenched and able to ride out the best intentions of upcoming potential leaders. I was shocked by the examples of outright corruption while living there.

Not to dampen your optimism - I am absolutely cheering you on to be right, as I'd love to see it, but I'm sadly pessimistic.

I'll admit you may not have seen the cultural diversity in the area since the city is spread out, but Houston has as many OR MORE ethnicities than LA or NYC since the last decade has seen a huge increase in the number of refugees and students and workers from every little corner of the globe you could imagine. In addition to the Vietnamese and Chinese who have been here for a while, there are now large numbers of Indians and folks from Central Asia and the Middle East who may not yet be counted. Having lived in Nigeria as a kid, I'm excited that as of the last couple of years, there are possibly more Nigerians here in Houston than anywhere else in the world outside of Nigeria--more than NYC, LA or Chicago. I miss the walkability of Boston and how easy it was to run into so many people compared to the seclusion you feel in a driving city. Even though Houston is pouring hundreds of millions into bicycle trails at this moment, I know it will take a long time for this spread-out city to afford as many opportunities to bump into all sorts of people every day outside of a few key areas, and for that reason it's possible to live here and encounter little diversity.

yes, great point - which is the broad point I was trying to make - Silicon Valley benefits from being in the whole Bay Area which is incredibly diverse and that's a key strength of Silicon Valley's geography which other places won't choose to emulate.

Still. Not quite sure why my original point that started this thread keeps getting downvoted though - that's several so far, as far as I can tell.

Whether or not you think it's funny, Silicon Valley is statistically the most diverse community in the USA.

Ethnic diversity is less interesting (and less relevant) - I'd also call it a stretch to consider San Jose as the main city of silicon valley. The people actually working in tech are fairly homogenous culturally (which is what the OP was talking about).

I'm not saying this is bad, but that diversity may not be that important for a silicon valley like atmosphere and that the people who work in tech aren't very diverse. Palo Alto also isn't a very varied place and is the center of the current silicon valley.

I think a meritocracy and a willingness to try/accept new ideas rather than hold on to tradition is the important thing. I think that tends to go along with education, the more highly selected the better.

How do you mean? Fort Bend County in the Houston area is the most ethnically diverse:

http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Fort...

But I've no doubt Silicon Valley is fairly diverse, although there were a bunch of articles in the last couple of years pointing out how little diversity there is in the management layers of Silicon Valley companies.

San Jose (the largest city in Silicon Valley) has no demographic group comprising more than 35% of the entire population.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/trulia/2012/11/13/finding-divers...

I'll allow a truce. :) I was hanging out with Rice sociologist Dr. Michael Emerson this morning so the topic is near and dear to my heart! FWIW they're all very close right now, and the biggest surprise is that Houston is so diverse--it has undergone the most rapid transformation of any large city in America in the last 3 decades, which means it's on track for rapidly outpacing the others in ethnic diversity (there were few Hispanics and Asians here when I was born, and now there are huge numbers).

Houston has the advantages of affordable property, more jobs for a wider range of backgrounds and few limits to development. It seems natural that new immigrants not specifically involved in the software industry would choose Houston over Silicon Valley. Especially if they already know they can take the humidity.

The cost of housing alone. An equivalent to my large house in a leafy suburb of Houston is absolutely unaffordable to me now I live in the Bay Area. Personally I prefer my overall lifestyle and standard of living here, but it's bloody pricey!

Prices (in SF, anyway) have also increased dramatically since I left the area in 2009. I got paid more and paid less for rent when I moved to NYC, which didn't make sense to me, either.

That's funny...

because having lived in New York, and currently between DC and Houston, whenever I'm in Silicon Valley I'm always sort of, taken aback, by the paucity of blacks there. Reading through that article, I see now that it wasn't just my imagination.

That's a worthless demographic. What does that tell us about the demographics of startups and tech?

Nope.

Statistically...

it's Houston.

This study puts a few cities ahead of Houston.

http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2012/09/07/which-u-s-cities-a...

(I don't really care what city wins, but it was absurd to read that the Silicon Valley area was not diverse...)

Yeah, that was absurd. I also don't care since I know Houston is changing the most rapidly and will soon win by a landslide. ;)

I think the key is though - and certainly the point I was trying to make at the start of the thread - it's not just ethnic diversity, though that's important. It's diversity of opinion and other cultural factors. There's an open-mindedness to Silicon Valley that is definitely not there in Houston - my in-laws are from Houston and I lived there for three years, and I don't think anyone would make the case that it's comparable to the Bay Area for that.

Yet that cultural tolerance has been shown time and again to be critical in attracting the creative class professionals which make Silicon Valley tick.

I'd agree that it's cultural tolerance that is the important factor, but I don't know if that results from diversity - I think it results from education.