On Oct. 25, Nolan Gray, a city planner and housing researcher at UCLA, created a bracket pitting 64 United States cities against each other.
Alright folks, let's settle this once and for all: what's the best US city? Round of 64 opens tomorrow! pic.twitter.com/VrHXWAah25
— M. Nolan Gray 🥑 (@mnolangray) October 26, 2021
He tweeted out the bracket under the title “The 2021 Gray Invitational” and invited everyone to vote for each matchup to determine the greatest city. Milwaukee was given a 10 seed and faced off against No. 7 seed Austin, Texas, in the first round.
That first round, Gray said that the Milwaukee poll had the biggest audience. We beat out Austin, and the bracket started to gain steam around local tweeters intent on bringing Milwaukee to the championship.
Buoyed by civic pride, Milwaukee got on a hot streak.
In the next round, we beat 2-seeded Miami, and then 3-seeded San Francisco, and then took down our neighbors 4-seeded Minneapolis. In the final four, we were face-to-face with the No. 1 seed, Chicago, and like a neglected sibling finally snapping after years of abuse, we leapt brutally upon the city to our south and beat them into submission.
That brings us to the final round of the 2021 Gray Invitational – Milwaukee vs. New York City. The showdown went live midday Friday and voting remains open for 24 hours. Cast your vote on Twitter, here:
🚨 It's time to settle this once and for all 🚨
The championship match starts now. Poll closes in 24 hours! Follow the competition: https://t.co/UspI5hqTk6 pic.twitter.com/raAPeWSvD3
— M. Nolan Gray 🥑 (@mnolangray) November 5, 2021
