Why I love Portland, OR

Not that I have anything against Portland, ME, but I have no experience with that city. My few reasons, not in any particular order:

1. Beautiful downtown – the Willamette river, the bridges, the waterfront area, the very modest skyline.
2. One of the most biking friendly cities in the U.S.
3. Lot of opportunities for a variety of outdoor activities – hiking, biking, boating etc.
4. Very environmentally conscious city and people. I saw recycling bins everywhere in public places, I know lots of people who live here who try to do the right thing by the environment. I saw a statistic somewhere that Portland had the highest number of tree huggers, but can’t find the link now.
5. The varied landscape and the accessibility to a variety of natural resources – waterfalls, rivers, lakes, the gorge, the mountains and the coast which is less than 2hrs away.
6. The first “big city” that I lived here in the U.S. Coming from a college town, it sure felt like a big city.
7. PDX – great restaurants, good shopping and best of all free wi-fi, from where I’m writing. (Although PK says lots of airports offer free wireless, I have not seen any yet except PDX. And I have recently been to or transited through BOS, AUS, SFO, PHL and many other airports, so I’ll believe him when I see more)

The only negative thing I feel is the weather and the very short summer, but hey, we can’t have it all!