CityBracket 2025 Round 1, Matchup 1: Seattle vs Quad Cities

Welcome to our first matchup in CityBracket 2025, the battle of the two cities I've lived in for the longest in my life, the Seattle vs Quad Cities matchup! I'm not sure we're going to have any major surprises today, but that's why they play the games why I do the analysis!

Category 1: Visiting Without A Car

a) How can you get to the city? 

This one is a pretty clear verdict, though as we'll see in later matchups neither of these cities is going to rock this one once the competition gets fiercer! The Quad Cities has a bus depot (technically one on either side of the river)

and you certainly can take a bus to and from the airport

Or in my case, a bus to a bus to a bus (this is the first one)

But Seattle has an actual rail link to the airport

(when it's running at least) and an actual train station as well

(Image from Wikimedia Commons, under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International License)

Plus you can even bike to and from the airport (well, assuming you had a bike to leave, so maybe this isn't about "visiting") 

 VERDICT: Seattle 1, Quad Cities 0

b) How do you get around?

Well, those same options are available once you get here: the QCA has Metrolink and Citybus

And the ability to bike, but limited bike lanes

Though some of us still use them!

Seattle, by contrast, has not only Link Light Rail and Sounder Commuter Rail but a much more extensive (i.e. not only hourly) bus system:

And bikeshare and scooters, not just bikes one might own oneself:

VERDICT: Seattle 2, Quad Cities 0

c) What are the limits on a visitor without a car?

Well, there are whole areas of the QCA that aren't on bus lines--and the same is true of Seattle (but rather less). And the downtowns is/are a bit less connected (thanks, Mississippi River)

Not that there isn't water by Seattle's downtown too.

VERDICT: Seattle 3, Quad Cities 0

Category 2: Living Without A Car

a) Can you expect to get to work?

Seattle has flaws in its system, but there's a reason it is on this list of high commuting by transit and none of the Quad Cities are. Seattle isn't some massive outlier among large US cities, but there's a major difference in commuting styles between those larger metros and ones like the QCA for a reason, and a lot of it is that, no, you can't expect to get to work without a car in the QCA.

Unless you're me.

Ah, the sweetness of living one mile from work and next to a hospital that's a comparatively major transit hub! 

And yes, there is the Tyson bus if you work at that plant, so there is some transit accessibility for some work. But not generally.

VERDICT: Seattle 4, Quad Cities 0

b) Can you live the rest of your life?

As you might guess, these closely correlate. Seattle has plenty of single family residential housing that isn't totally transit-oriented or walking-friendly:

But even this low-density area (I grew up taking the school bus across the street from that grocery) has, well, a small grocery store on the corner, and there are multiple bus lines that stop at this corner. It's much easier to move around Seattle without a car, and it's much more likely that there will be smaller-scale commercial like this dotted into your neighborhood.

VERDICT: Seattle 5, Quad Cities 0

c) How are the basic amenities?

Well, both cities mostly have sidewalks, and parks

They both have tree-lined streets and the usual American ability to use a bathroom without paying. It might be generous to the QCA here (Kimberly Road having no sidewalks still bothers me) but I'm going to call this a tie. If we had a closer matchup I might push harder, but...

VERDICT: Seattle 6, Quad Cities 1

Category 3: Miscellaneous

a) Are there people on the street?

I wrote a whole post about this in the QCA. We can talk about Seattle in a future matchup, but suffice to say, there are a lot more people on the street.

VERDICT: Seattle 7, Quad Cities 1

b) Where is the city's urbanism going?

Seattle has ST3 coming, slowly and over budget. The Quad Cities might someday get a rail link to Chicago.

VERDICT: Seattle 8, Quad Cities 1

c) Is it functionally diverse?

Seattle is quite white. The QCA is more so. My high school in Seattle literally had an article about how racially segregated it was even within its walls while I was there. The QCA has a very long history of redlining and its impacts. 

There is no glory here.

That said, Seattle is more diverse and similarly racially divided, so it squeaks this one out.

VERDICT: Seattle 9, Quad Cities 1

d) How do people there react to knowing you're not using a car?

In Seattle, it depends where you are, but it's not entirely unusual not to use a car.

In the Quad Cities, I get yelled at for having my kids on my bike.

VERDICT: Seattle 10, Quad Cities 1

e) How do people react to people living close together?

Seattle's growth plan is inadequate and being opposed by local groups in the courts. 

Davenport's master plan is not really focused on growth at all.

Seattle is already much denser, and while there are certainly large numbers of NIMBYs there, it's not a close call as to which city is more positive about density.

FINAL VERDICT: Seattle 11, Quad Cities 1

As predicted, this was not a close matchup. But the QCA is doing better than I expected on some of these categories, and maybe (though I'm not optimistic) it could go more the Iowa City direction and start putting up some impressive numbers even against a larger city someday.

Seattle had an easy time of this matchup, but they'll need to step up their game against more difficult competition, possibly as early as the next round.