Houston is highly regarded for its diverse food and restaurant culture Several major publications have consistently named Houston as one of "America's Best Food Cities". ! . 6.2 Republic of Texas, 4 Spanish exploration Sheriff Ed Gonzalez Democratic, Lufkin (35,067) Ross Perot former U.S presidential candidate born in Texarkana Bowie County. . In the 1970s the Chinese-American community in Houston which had been relatively small started growing at a rapid rate. 11.3 Ports 4.2 Movie theaters The Gulf Coastal Plains region wraps around the Gulf of Mexico on the southeast section of the state Vegetation in this region consists of thick piney woods the Interior Lowlands region consists of gently rolling to hilly forested land and is part of a larger pine-hardwood forest. 135 Jon Rosenthal Democratic 2018 Jersey Village and southeastern segments of the Champions/FM 1960 area Because the Houston Independent School District was slow to desegregate public schools on June 1 1970 the Federal officials struck the HISD plan down and forced it to adopt zoning laws This was 16 years after the landmark Supreme Court ruling in Brown v Board of Education which determined that segregated schools were inherently unequal Racial tensions over integration of the schools continued Some Hispanic Americans felt they were being discriminated against when they were being put with only African-Americans as part of the desegregation plan so many took their children out of the schools and put them in huelgas or protest schools until a ruling in 1973 satisfied their demands.

The Lyric Centre Three loop freeways provide north-south and east-west connectivity between Greater Houston's radial highways the innermost loop is Interstate 610 commonly known as the Inner Loop which encircles Downtown the Texas Medical Center Greenway Plaza the cities of West University Place and Southside Place and many core neighborhoods the 88-mile (142 km) State Highway Beltway 8 often referred to as the Beltway forms the middle loop at a radius of roughly 10 miles (16 km) a third 180-mile (290 km) loop with a radius of approximately 25 miles (40 km) State Highway 99 (the Grand Parkway) is currently under construction with six of eleven segments completed as of 2018. Completed segments D through G provide a continuous 70.4-mile (113.3 km) limited-access tollway connection between Sugar Land Katy Cypress Spring and Porter. ! . The 2003 Texas redistricting of Congressional districts led by Republican Tom DeLay was called by the New York Times "an extreme case of partisan gerrymandering" a group of Democratic legislators the "Texas Eleven" fled the state in a quorum-busting effort to prevent the legislature from acting but was unsuccessful the state had already redistricted following the 2000 census Despite these efforts the legislature passed a map heavily in favor of Republicans based on 2000 data and ignoring the estimated nearly one million new residents in the state since that date Career attorneys and analysts at the Department of Justice objected to the plan as diluting the votes of African American and Hispanic voters but political appointees overrode them and approved it. Legal challenges to the redistricting reached the national Supreme Court in the case League of United Latin American Citizens v Perry (2006) but the court ruled in favor of the state (and Republicans). . In the 2014 Texas elections the Tea Party movement made large gains with numerous Tea Party favorites being elected into office including Dan Patrick as lieutenant governor Ken Paxton as attorney general in addition to numerous other candidates including conservative Republican Greg Abbott as governor, Buffalo Bayou is the longest and largest of the bayous which flow through Houston following a 53-mile (85 km) route from Katy through Memorial Rice Military Downtown the East End Denver Harbor and Channelview before meeting the San Jacinto River at Galveston Bay the broad eastern stretch of the river known as the Houston Ship Channel plays an essential role in the Port of Houston and is home to one of the largest petrochemical refining complexes in the United States. Buffalo Bayou's environs are also home to significant amounts of parkland including linear parks such as Terry Hershey Park and Buffalo Bayou Park which serve as corridors for walking and bicycling. .