Seattle, the Ultimate 'Meet' Market? Really?!

Everyone from the Seattle Weekly to my Facebook friends have called foul on Marie Claire's decision to crown Seattle the number one city to meet guys. 

In a blog post last week, Seattle Weekly writer, Erika Hobart bashed the methodology (men to women ratio, fitness of dudes, time of last call, accessibility to mass transit, number of coffee shops and movie theaters) Marie Claire used to crown Seattle the "date friendliest" city in the country. The next day, Monica Guzman at the Seattle P-I chatted with Lea Goldman, editor of Marie Claire,who actually said she "[felt] bad for the blogger (Erika Hobart)." Goldman added insult to injury by saying she wanted to "hook [Hobart] up with some of the fellas we met in Seattle." 

Intrigued by the apparent chord struck by Marie Claire, I took a deeper look at the mag's list this evening to see what all the fuss was about. From the Seattle section of the Marie Claire article:

Seattle: Hunting guys here isn't easy, thanks to persistently dank weather and the Vulcan-like standoffishness typical of Emerald City's comp-sci hordes. (Hundreds of tech firms, including Microsoft, are based in the area.) Locals boast that it's a haven for green-minded lefties who get as big a thrill rappelling the Cascades as they do "coding the architecture" (don't ask us what that means).  "In Seattle, a lot of lines blur—the geeks here are pretty outdoorsy." -Jennifer, 27 His haunts: Beer tastings at Bottleworks; Monday night line dancing at Little Red Hen; pre-Mariners pints at Pyramid Alehouse; Sundays at the Ballard Farmers Market; Ladies' Night at Frontier Room; live alt-rock at Tractor Tavern; the Seattle Coffee Crawl; Friends of Seattle Public Library Book Sale (September 25—27); Guitar Hero at Whisky Bar; late morning at Olympia's Caffé Vita; Mount Rainier's Burroughs Mountain Trail; Open Floor at the Henry Art Gallery; Space City Mixers. His threads: Northwest chic is all about comfy layering--Patagonia shell, vintage band tee (e.g., Soundgarden), jeans from Riveted, a flash drive dangling from a carabiner key chain. (His only suit is reserved for weddings and funerals.) His ride: The Microsoft Connector from Queen Anne to Redmond. Your prep: Shave, floss, and smell vaguely like an Aveda store. If he coaxes your bra off on the first date, he'll expect you to Facebook-friend him the next day. Keep in mind: The difference between an Americano and an au lait. Pickup line: "Mac or PC?"

To be fair, Marie Claire's asessment of Seattle's single dude scene doesn't seem too off base. But just because Seattle is ripe with rich computer geeks with no fashion sense and bus passes, doesn't mean that Seattle girls are pining for these average Seattle guys (or any guy who uses pick up lines like, "Mac or  PC?"). 

I would venture to guess that the reason Seattle girls disagree so strongly with the Marie Claire survey is that the average Seattle girl is smart enough to want to meet a guy who embodies more than a walking, talking Pacific Northwest stereotype.