If you were to stake out the parking lot at Brightleaf Square on any given morning, then come back later at lunch time, you'd see the possibilities of Durham's downtown in real time.

From the wooden veranda of our newsroom at Peabody Place over Fowler's Gourmet, every week I see the wide expanse of fading black top slowly fill with cars as the lunch hour approaches. From 11:30 until about 2, diners fan out to Fowler's, Fishmongers, Torrero's and other restaurants, testament to the power of good eats.

Imagine then, what is likely to happen once the Liggett & Myers property across the street is redeveloped, the downtown streetscape is completed, and the new performing arts center is built near the American Tobacco complex and the Durham Bulls Athletic Park.

At long last, not since the departure of Duke Power, GTE and nearly all the major banks, will Durham residents have more reasons to come downtown, other than to work, to catch the bus or to pay bills.

You may recall when Fridays or the first of the month triggered a stampede downtown. People would come, cash their checks, then fan out across the area to pay their phone, power and water bills. They'd flit in and out of offices or City Hall, many clutching money-laden envelopes bearing witness to their lack of checking accounts.

That may not have been the kind of moth-to-a-flame attraction that downtown boosters would brag about, but at least somebody came downtown. As it stands now, you'd be hard-pressed to find anyone down here -- save the Brightleaf and American Tobacco areas -- who did not work here, unless, of course, they had just gotten lost on the dreaded Downtown Loop.

Downtown appears poised to once again become a destination rather than a stopover; a place you want to go, not have to go.

Maybe Bob Dylan was right, "the times, they are a changing."