I recently read the article 'Frugal Portland' by Matt Gross and thought it was pretty fascinating. It actually does give a pretty good account of the atmosphere I see as I walk around Portland on a daily basis. While I'm not convinced that a bike is the way to go, a stroll through the streets on a nice day is always solid.
This article does show how spoiled we are in Portland, though. I've been to a lot of other cities and it is not always easy to find good food. More importantly, if you do it is usually fairly expensive. In Portland, there are a handful of places you can go at any time and get a quick meal for under $10. While this writer thinks $25 is a bargain, that is expensive for a guy like me. I guess I do epitomize the 'frugal' Portlander. I'm always looking for a good happy hour, or a cheap meal. To be fair, I usually eat at home so I know what's going into my meals, but that's another story.
I can also say I've started to enjoy the availability of mass transit as well. When I was living in the suburbs, it was very easy to look at it as a waste of money. However my tune has changes somewhat. Not only is it convenient for people that live downtown, but if all of those people were driving around, it would make it even harder for everyone else to get around downtown and more importantly park! Parking always seems to be the issue when you drive downtown, and if there are fewer cars, at some point it will become easier. Now they just need to get the interstate bridge done, and find a way to widen I-5 through the rose quarter. I'm not going to hold my breath on that though.
Overall though, I would say Portland is a fairly inexpensive city to live in. You can always find exceptions, but if you take a little time to make yourself familiar with the city there are bargains to be had.
If you ever want recommendations, just ask as I'm full of them.
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