MVC :: Binding Controller & View Without ViewData?

I like ASP.NET MVC, because I like to have direct access to my web site's structure. However there's 1 thing that I don't like.

In Ruby on Rails to send data from Controller to View is really easy:

# Get a user in controller

@user = User.first(:id => 1)

# Display him in a view

<%= @user.id %>

In ASP.NET MVC it's much harder

// Controller
User user = new User(1);
ViewData["user"] = user;
// View
<% User user = (MyNamespace.User)ViewData["user"]; %>
<%= user.Id %>

With this ViewData thing all benefits of static languages go away, and we waste time boxing/unboxing objects.

P.S. Don't tell me to use Model object, because this is also true for other variables like integer.

And another question:

I'm trying to implement a comfrtable access to data. Since I can't use LINQ to SQL as I use Postrgresql, I have to do it on my own. I'm tired of direct SQL queries, so I'm trying to implement something like this:

User user = User.Find("first_name" => "Bob");