The real estate market continues its slump, stock prices are swinging wildly, and politicians in Washington have yet to chart a sure path to recovery. So what's to celebrate as we contemplate another two months of winter?
Some would say it's the fact that President Bush has delivered his last State of the Union speech. Regardless of your feelings about his domestic policies - times were pretty good up until a year or so ago - there's broad agreement that a change in Washington will provide a jolt to the national psyche. But that won't happen until next January.
Meanwhile, the talk of recession continues, and a feeling of uncertainty continues to hover over the nation. Certainly this region is not immune, but there are some positive signs:
* Our business section Tuesday had a story about how the former Osram Sylvania plant on Sylvan Street in Danvers, vacant for a decade, will soon welcome its first new tenant - Danversbank - with more to follow.
The sprawling factory building has been something of a bellwether.
It was built in 1941 for the manufacture of fluorescent lamps during a time the North Shore was still in its industrial heyday. But the plant was shuttered in 1998, after its owner decided those operations could be performed more cheaply elsewhere.
Shortly after its closing came news that Applied Materials, a large, California-based maker of computer chips, was going to make the plant its main East Coast manufacturing facility. But those plans fell victim to changes in the computer industry.
A new owner decided its best use might be as an office park, but even an aggressive marketing effort failed to stir interest in the property at first. Now Danversbank - a good example itself of a local institution that has been able to thrive in the increasingly competitive financial services market - has moved its back-office operations to the former light plant. And leasing manager Ann Goggin told reporter Ethan Forman that a marketing company is scheduled to relocate there from Middleton this March.
* Ironically, one of the reasons the bank cited for seeking expanded quarters was the lack of parking near its headquarters in Danvers Square.
Through good times and bad, downtown Danvers has retained its vitality and today boasts a dozen eating establishments with more on the way, an independently-operated hardware store (an increasing rarity these days), a news store (also a vanishing breed), a CVS (soon, it seems there will be one of these on every corner in America), a high-end cake shop, and, perhaps most remarkably, a high-end dress shop. The latter, Lorraine Roy, has been an institution in downtown Danvers for more than half a century; and new owner Jeanne Hennessey told reporter Amanda McGregor in another story in Tuesday's business section that business is good and it's not going anywhere soon.
* Health care remains a growth industry here. Northeast Health, parent of Beverly Hospital, just opened its new facility near the intersection of Routes 1 and 62 in Danvers; the steel is rising on the new Partners Health outpatient facility on the other side of town; and Lahey Clinic recently broke ground on a planned expansion of its satellite hospital in Peabody.
* And there are additional signs of hope for the future on the retail side as work continues on a major expansion of Peabody's Northshore Mall. Despite all the construction, recent additions like the new Cheesecake Factory visible from Route 128 and the relocation of the Macy's home furnishing and men's departments to the former Lord & Taylor store have already proven to be a major draw for the regional shopping center.
Despite this latest - and likely inevitable - dip in the economic cycle, the good news is that businesses and institutions continue to grow and people are still spending.
