Frugal Is As Frugal Does

"Amid economic catastrophe — Oregon has the country’s second-highest unemployment rate — there was a general indifference to wealth. In its place was a dedication to the things that really matter: hearty food and drink, cultural pursuits both high and low, days in the outdoors and evenings out with friends. It’s the good life, and in Portland it still comes cheap."

In early April I got word that Matt Gross, the Frugal Traveler columnist for the New York Times, was in town checking out the scene for an upcoming article. He was soliciting suggestions for local hot spots and venues to visit by way of Twitter, the micro-blogging site.

The results of those recommendations were evident in the Sunday Travel section in the article "Frugal Portland" wherein he waxes eloquent about the charms of our food carts, the sandwiches at Bunk, the beer at Hopworks, the rooms at the Ace and many other stops that, frankly, we take for granted.

He closes the article with: "Good living takes its toll on the body if not on the wallet, and we all need energy to face the next day’s agenda of food, friends and frugality. And every evening, as I drifted off in my soft Ace Hotel bed, under the reassuring weight of that wool blanket, I would try to figure out how to answer a question I heard almost daily, from strangers and from old pals who saw how smoothly I’d settled into my Portland routine. 'So,' they’d ask, 'when are you moving here?' I still don’t know what to tell them."

Photos by Leah Nash for The New York Times.