It’s been pretty tough watching the news of late, as the Great Recession rolls on, and the talking heads continue to try to persuade us that our mighty national government can provide us with jobs and recovery.  I’ve trained myself to not even bother turning on the tube, so my mind does not have to deal with the constant negativity.  Instead, I find inspiration in the communities around me here in the Upper Hudson Valley.

Despite the gloom and doom reporting on the 24 hour news cycle, there is actually a lot of real hope and change happening in our midst.  And it’s happening not because of some government program or artificial stimulus; it’s happening because the entrepreneurial spirit is still alive, and it’s the best way to create jobs and economic growth. And the opportunity is all around, if we could just open our eyes to see it.  Where some see decline, other see opportunity.  Some of those visionary people are found within these pages.  People, like in our cover story, Eva Lamiano and Eran Wasserman, who took over a defunct gas station, of all things, and have breathed their own creativity into it, turning it into something altogether different than anything else you’ve ever seen.  And the locals love them for it!  People like Lorraine Lambiase and Sheila Flanagan of the Nettle Meadow Farm in Thurman, a small Adirondack community.  With a good idea and a few hungry goats, they’ve turned a dilapidated old farm in the mountains into a production facility for some of the best damn goat cheese you’ll find anywhere.  The cheese is real good, but the barn is still dilapidated.  For those of you who want help them build a new barn, there’s an investment opportunity for you right there.  The ROI will have your taste buds shouting OMG!  And then there’s Nate Darrow and Marie Christine Gaud of Saratoga Apple.  They bought a large commercial apple farm in Schuylerville a few years back, and went against the industry standard of wholesaling apples to instead sell them retail at local Farmers Markets and at their own store.  At the time, their peers thought they were crazy, that they never make it.  Make it they did, and many of their peers have not.  Sometimes doing what everyone else won’t do is the path to success.  The folks at Coopers Cave Ale Company know about going against the grain.  They’ve been operating their micro micro-brewery for more than a decade now.  The Bethel family continues to reinvest in their little enterprise, and it keeps drawing in the customers.  The adjacent bike path inspired them to make ice cream.  You can grab a cone on your way to Lake George.  When the wholesale end of the business went flat (no pun intended) they opened up a pub next door.  Their new outdoor deck is now open, so now you can stop back after your ride to the lake and have dinner alongside the bike path.  Running a restaurant business is never a sure thing; running a restaurant in Saratoga Springs can be especially frustrating.  While summertime is easy money, it’s the off season that has killed many a restaurateur.  But when the Dine Restaurant on Henry Street closed, Jim Rua of Café Capriccio in Albany saw opportunity.  Together with his son Franco and family friend Henry Ciconne, they launched their sister restaurant Capriccio Saratoga in July.  Another restaurant, off Broadway, selling pizza?  Like that’s going to work.  Actually, judging from the full house practically every night this summer, yes, it’s going to work out just fine.  Good food always attracts good business. So the evidence is in…there is no recession for good ideas, gumption, and a can-do spirit.  The best opportunities are all around us…and inside…of you.