Slowed down by the Great Recession, downtown Providence’s renaissance is gaining steam, as new retail establishments follow the capital city’s reawakening residential momentum.

Led by the key downtown developer, Cornish Associates, the city is looking at impending openings of an artisan bakery, a wine bar, a wood-oven restaurant, a gallery and art-supply shop and an Alex and Ani store to go along with other retail ventures.

The residential-commercial redevelopment projects at the Arcade and the former National Grid buildings that are soon to open are just the latest such ventures in the area.

OK, it’s not the go-go atmosphere of nearly a decade ago, when then-Gov. Donald L. Carcieri would routinely joke that the state bird was the crane. But taken all together, the investments being made are a vote of confidence in a city and state stuck in a rut that would seem to justify neither. Maybe it’s time to start believing in Rhode Island again. •