MILWAUKEE — Milwaukee is close to winning the title of 'best city' in the USA.
A 64-city bracket style tournament was posted to Twitter. Cities were seeded based on the metropolitan population size. Twitter users would vote on head-to-head matchups for which was the better city. After five tough rounds, no.10 seed Milwaukee is in the finals against the overall no.1 seed, New York City.
The light-hearted tournament was created by Nolan Gray, a city planning researcher out of UCLA.
“It was just an idea that popped in my head one day. I thought it would be funny. I thought it would be good content, and its kind of taken on a life of its own," Gray said.
In the first round, Milwaukee came out on top against Austin, Texas. In the second Milwaukee defeated Miami, and in third bested San Francisco. In the fourth Milwaukee faced off against fellow Midwestern city Minneapolis, and won.
In the fifth round Milwaukee went up against neighboring city and to some Brew City residents rival city, Chicago. After hours of competitive voting in the poll, Milwaukee came out on top with a vote of 51.9% to 48.1%.
Voting has already begun for the final around and only lasts 24 hours.
On Friday, Milwaukeeans voiced why they believe the Brew City is better than the Big Apple.
“I love the lakes and the rivers. It always just feels so fresh and bright. That’s what I love about Milwaukee," Capri Whitely said.
“I mean I haven’t seen a single rat. I’ve been here all day," Cooper Janquart said.
"I love the atmosphere. I love the people. I love just the mix of cultures that we have," Josiah Dawson said.
"Milwaukee is better than New York city because it's smaller. It's more of a homier vibe," Dominic Wilder said.
So go vote! It's your civic duty.
Ladies and gentlemen, we have our championship contenders.
— 𝗡𝗼𝗹𝗮𝗻 𝗚𝗿𝗮𝘆 (@mnolangray) November 4, 2021
New York City (1) advances and it looks like Cinderella-story Milwaukee (10) is going to the big dance.
Tune in tomorrow at 9am PT to decide who should take it all! pic.twitter.com/hqGPvzaZQV
