The Quad Cities are located in Illinois and Iowa, Davenport and Bettendorf in IA and Rock Island, Moline,(and East Moline) all located just across the Mississippi River in IL. Yes, it is a common joke around the immediate area. The Quad Cities now seems to contain five major cities. The Quad Cities used to be a major industrial area due to the accessible boat traffic, when boating was the ONLY way to travel. The Quad Cities, or one of the Quad Cities, are sometimes mentioned on national TV, in movies, and in songs. For example, Davenport was made fun of numerous times in late night TV monologues for not having a flood wall during the flood of 2001, and Rock Island is the Rock Island in Leadbelly’s “Rock Island Line”. The Quad Cities is also a famous location for John Deere collectors, due to the John Deere tractor museum, and Moline is also the stopping place for Isabel Bloom (a recently deceased sculptor based in the Q.C.) collectors.
The Quad Cities are also very important in the political arena. Bill Clinton campaigned in the Q.C. during both elections, and more recently, both Al Gore and George W. Bush campaigned in Davenport. The philosophy is that if you can win over Illinois (the Land of Lincoln) or Iowa, you can win the other state as well.
One can also find a great source of
entertainment in the Q.C. There are always many county
fairs and
carnivals during the
summer, and The District of Rock Island holds various street parties throughout the year. In Moline, the biggest attraction is The Mark, which has many concerts (
Janet Jackson,
Dave Matthews Band,
Everclear,
Elton John, etc.) and sporting events (
ice hockey,
arena football, etc.).