more than 3,500 Hispanics per square mile. From the same period Hispanics began to move into a portion of the southeast metropolitan area, including sections of Pasadena and the City of South Houston by an amount between 1,000 and 3,500 per square mile. Between 1985 and 2005, the county's Hispanic population tripled, with Hispanics making up about 40% of the county's residents. In most communities inside and outside Beltway 8, Hispanics became the predominant ethnic group. Some communities in Greater Houston which do not have Hispanics as the predominant ethnic group include expensive, predominately non-Hispanic white communities such as Memorial, Uptown, and West University Place; and historically African American neighborhoods located south and northeast of Downtown Houston. Eschbach said, "But even these core black and white neighborhoods are experiencing Hispanic inroads. Today, Hispanics live everywhere." In a period before 2005, many Hispanic and Latino Americans had moved into traditionally African-American neighborhoods. Between 1990 and 2000, the numbers of Hispanic and Latino Americans in Kashmere Gardens, South Park, Sunnyside, and the Third Ward increased. After Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005, many ethnic Hondurans from that city moved to Houston. The Hispanic and Latino population's percentage of the overall population of Texas City had increased to 29.9% in 2017 from 27% in 2010, and by then the city had a Hispanic supermarket and other businesses catering to Hispanics. Politics As of 2001, Hispanics were almost 38% of Houston's population and 8% of the city's voting electorate. As of the same year, most Hispanic and Latino candidates elected to public office in Houston are Mexican Americans, who are members of the Democratic Party. Most Hispanics and Latinos in public office are politically liberal. Lori Rodriguez of the Houston Chronicle said in 2001 that "the top tier of Latino politicos mainly walk in lock step." According to Richard Murray, a political scientist of the Center for Public Policy of Rice University, the Hispanic middle class of 2001 was larger than in previous years, and Hispanic voters lived in every Houston voting precinct, including River Oaks and Tanglewood. In 2007 most of the Hispanic and Latino political power was Mexican American, aligned with the Democratic Party, and made up of residents of eastern Houston. But many of the most vocal leaders who participated in immigration rallies were Hispanics of Central American origin who resided mostly in Southwest Houston. In 2001 Orlando Sanchez made