If you took away the part of Raleigh below the Beltline, North Raleigh would be a fairly viable metropolitan area . But there would be no downtown.

Or would there? A downtown is really just a hub, the place where people and commerce gather.

Wake Forest has a downtown, of course, but it's a little too far out to serve as a hub for the entire northern half of the county. One could argue that northern Wake's downtown is Crabtree Valley Mall. Or Triangle Town Center. Or maybe even Brier Creek Commons.

I'd buy that argument. When my wife and I want to do something on the weekend, the first place we think of is one of the shopping centers -- and not just to shop. We go to let the kids burn off a little energy. Sometimes we meet friends there (by design or accident). A lot goes on at the major shopping centers, and a lot of it is free (one of my favorite words).

All of which is to introduce a small (but I think important) change. In place of the "Open for business" feature we've been running at the top of our Market Place page, we'll start next week with a new feature: "At the shopping centers."

There are other places to find out about new businesses in The N&O. Leona Bloom keeps a lookout and reports on new businesses in the North Raleigh News' coverage area in her "Buy & Sell" column. Samantha Thompson Smith's "Retailing" column, which runs every Saturday in the business section, gives the 411 on new businesses all over the Triangle (including, of course, northern Wake). And the "New neighbors (charters)" feature compiled by Joyce Sykes that we run regularly (though not necessarily every week) lists newly incorporated businesses.

So it will remain easy to find out about new businesses. Starting next week, it will be easier to find out about neat stuff going on in shopping centers -- or should I say, downtown.