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.