Claire L. Hebert-Dow: Looking forward to continued growth downtown

To The Daily Sun,

I hope a good many of this paper's subscribers experienced the same jolt of joy as I did upon reading Adam's front-page interview with Canal Street's newest entrepreneurs. The shop known as U-Frame We Frame has been as much a fixture in what I like to call "lil LA" as Penny Pitou Travel, Achber Studio and corner neighbor Greenlaw's Music. Now I know why a recent hello with Jim Daub had him so excited. He had already met John and Warren of Piedmont Print and Frame.

My beloved hometown is finally shaping up. And it has little to do with us baby boomers, but rather the generation we produced. And thank God for their willingness to take a risk on a city which seemingly had seen its best days.

For years I've considered this little street owning all the trappings to rival the off-Main lanes of Portsmouth, Newburyport and Portland. But why wasn't it happening?

There's an energy now far more palpable within this community, and it's coming from our younger folks. Whether they left and returned, never left in the first place or just got lucky, one by one this city is getting an infusion from the generation in whose hands its future lies.

I dare not single out each and every business since the inception of Burrito Me in fear of omitting someone's name. But thank you all for believing in our City on the Lakes. We are indebted.

Claire L. Hebert-Dow

Laconia