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Balanced economy, centering on service industries, finance (Bank of America, Fidelity, Aetna), light manufacturing, seaport activities (fishing; top petroleum port on east coast, 25th most tonnage handled in U.S., most tonnage handled of any New England seaport (Answers.com)).
Lots of restaurants, good restaurants with a variety of cuisines, brewpubs, etc.; rumored to have the second most restaurants per capita of any U.S. city, behind San Francisco (though I've never found solid verification of this, but there are a ton of good restaurants in Portland).
Symphony orchestra; theater companies; a downtown arts district centering on the Portland Museum of Art (with a collection that includes works by Winslow Homer and Andrew Wyeth, to name a couple, in case you get the idea that a small city's art museum couldn't have any major art), with a variety of galleries and art instruction; minor league baseball and minor league hockey.
In addition to ocean-oriented outdoor recreation right there, some of it actually within the city limits, Portland is also less than an hour from the edge of a large region of inland lakes, two hours from mountains, and within an hour or two of some good white water. It's also just over two hours away from Boston, if you want access to the urban amenities of a larger city.
The OP used Seattle to describe the original small city beating the big city, there are also no limits posted. If there were, I would have adjusted my response. Seattle metro is 2x larger than Austin. In the context of Texas San Antonio and El Paso have bigger metros, but... I'd rather live in Austin, as I think there is more going on there and more enjoyable for instance.
Ogre,
We also love Portland ME. I heard the Portland Pirates were leaving, that was a while back. We saw a hockey game there and had a great time.
Portsmouth NH is our very favorite, though.
The OP used Seattle to describe the original small city beating the big city, there are also no limits posted. If there were, I would have adjusted my response. Seattle metro is 2x larger than Austin. In the context of Texas San Antonio and El Paso have bigger metros, but... I'd rather live in Austin, as I think there is more going on there and more enjoyable for instance.
No....I think he was comparing those cities to Seattle.
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