Slowly, building by building, Bangor’s downtown is re-emerging from its 1980s destitution of empty storefronts and abandoned hope to economic renewal. Too many places remain vacant to call the revival complete, but businesses are coming back and so is the hope for better days ahead.

In September, city development director Rodney McKay put together a list of more than two dozen projects undertaken during the last five years that have changed Bangor from being one of countless old cities surrendered to the local mall, to a downtown with a life of its own. The obvious developments, such as the Maine Discovery Museum and the library’s expansion, are on Mr. McKay’s list. But what is striking about the list are the number of smaller places that might be appreciated but not seen as part of an overall revival unless they are put in the context of all the other development that has occurred around them.

Hammond Street, for instance, was perhaps the city’s weariest-looking stretch of collapsing architecture when Bob and Suzanne Kelly of House Revivers began working with the city officials to restore it. The Cyrus Clark House, the Wadleigh-Richards double house next door and the Hammond Street courtyard projects have transformed that block, with House Revivers turning it into a point of pride

in the city.

Similarly, the rescue of Norumbega Hall, purchased by Bob Deurr, took a difficult but important building in the city’s history and, with the recent help of the Couri Foundation, which also restored the old Merrill Bank on Hammond, turned part of the new Chateau Ballroom into exercise space for seniors. UMaine’s art museum also will add immeasurably to the place.

There are too many more examples – on Columbia Street, Park Street and downtown Main Street – to name all the places that have gone from dilapidated or under used to restored and shining. But one of the most important changes in recent years is the increase in the amount of housing, boosting the number of people who live downtown, and not only the senior housing in the old Freese’s, although that it important too. Private development of apartments means that more people will be walking around, visiting the area shops and using local services. They make downtown a healthier, more inviting place.

Bangor still has a long way to go, and the questionable economy doesn’t help any, but it’s clear that good things are happening downtown, and the city officials, local developers and entrepreneurs who are making it happen deserve credit.