The Rice University Kinder Institute for Urban Research a think tank has described Greater Houston as "one of the most ethnically and culturally diverse metropolitan areas in the country". Houston's diversity fueled by large waves of immigrants has been attributed to its relatively low cost of living strong job market proximity to Latin America and role as a hub for refugee resettlement a 2012 Kinder Institute report found that based on the evenness of population distribution between the four major racial groups in the United States (non-Hispanic white non-Hispanic black Hispanic or Latino and Asian) Greater Houston was the most ethnically diverse metropolitan area in the United States ahead of New York City in 2017 according to the U.S Census Bureau non-Hispanic whites made up 24.9% of the population of Houston proper Hispanics or Latinos 44.5% Blacks or African Americans 22.9% and Asians 6.7%. . A gambrel-roofed house with large windows gracious wrap-around balcony and first floor porch with Grecian columns Sashed windows are framed by shutters.
The combined yearly sum spent by these agencies circa 2018 was $1.6 billion That year the Rice University Kinder Institute for Urban Research released a report advocating for consolidating several of these agencies as a way of saving taxpayer money, Humble Houston's bicycle sharing system started service with nineteen stations in May 2012 Houston Bcycle (also known as B-Cycle) a local non-profit runs the subscription program supplying bicycles and docking stations while partnering with other companies to maintain the system the network expanded to 29 stations and 225 bicycles in 2014 registering over 43,000 checkouts of equipment during the first half of the same year in 2017 Bcycle logged over 142,000 check outs while expanding to 56 docking stations. .
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