After five years of the most staggering economic collapse in most of our lifetimes, do you want to know what a recovering economy looks like?

— Dan Catlin putting shovels into the ground for a new subdivision of 47 new homes in Topsham.

— Five out of seven monitored Mid-coast municipalities posting better year-overyear unemployment data and six of eight posting better retail sales.

— The

Brunswick Town Council and Midcoast Regional Redevelopment Authority putting aside a fitful history to strike a deal on tax breaks for developers.

— Two dozen businesses operating in a space and paying workers and taxes where once there was a nonprofit military that vanished almost overnight.

— An international health care company offering to expand in a town still reeling from the loss of its largest taxpayer.

— The growing prospect of another billion dollar warship built in Bath.

— The connection of Brunswick and Freeport to Boston via Amtrak, giving the area a fresh influx of guests and new destinations to reach easily while leveraging redevelopment projects at Brunswick Station and elswehere.

— A new arts facility and dorm coming to Bowdoin College, in part because of an excellent relationship with the town.

Are there problems? Of course. Gas prices crimp retailers and tourism. Taxes threaten to outstrip stagnant incomes. Work force skills mostly lag employer demands. The perception of Maine as a hard place to do business persists.

And we may want to address the trend toward publicly funded tax breaks offered to these “job creators.” The private sector needs to go back to adopting more risk, since it is reaping most of the rewards. They could be creating more jobs, too.

Someone once said: “Argue for your limitations, and they are yours.”

We are asking our readers to argue for our many advantages: from the irreplacable resource of our coastline to the hard working attitudes of our workers to the incredible expertise of our planners and economic development managers.

Put it all together and the Mid-coast is ground zero for Maine’s economic recovery. The evidence is all around you.