Thanks a lot for the piece on all the vacant storefronts," a downtown merchant said to me the other day in regards to last week's column, "That empty feeling downtown." His tone was about the same as mine was 45 years ago when I "thanked" an aunt for calling an outbreak of acne to my attention.

He was smiling, thank goodness, with a recognition that the store vacancies, unpleasant as they are, can't be ignored. But neither should the center city's strengths. They easily outnumber the 20 storefront vacancies listed last week.

For instance, there's the newest large building downtown, the Community VNA Building on Morey Street, notable not only as the headquarters for a major health agency, but as a community center with its well-used class- and meeting rooms.

Just a few steps away is the Attleboro Arts Museum, with its well-attended exhibits, arts classes and such community gatherings as its annual poetry slam and fund-raising auction. And almost as easily as you can go from one boutique to another in a mall, you could walk from the museum to City Hall, the new county registry of deeds office, the police station and the Attleboro Area Industrial Museum.

While this sub-section of the downtown also includes such retail businesses as a Salvation Army store - the likes of which have been downtown renewal building blocks in both Woonsocket, R.I., and Stoughton - an ethnic (Guatemalan) bakery, a convenience store, the GATRA bus stop, and hangouts both old-style (Blackburn's Spa) and nouveau (Jaec's), it would be inviting to call this the arts-government district.