It's been a tough month for local colleges.

First, Chester College's closure was announced. Again. Then, earlier this week, there was a small fire at Southern New Hampshire University. Sprinklers apparently saved the day there.

Downtown Manchester is privileged enough to have UNH, but over the past few years, the New Hampshire Institute of Art has brought new life downtown, especially in one specific part of the city. Maybe it's time for a happy story for a Manchester college.

With the warm weather, the city parks have come alive, both in spring greenery and activity.

In particular, Victory Park, seated across from Manchester's massive and wonderful library, hasn't been a nice place to go for a while.

I took my son there years ago, only to be harassed by a few panhandlers. I understand that I can't possibly know their circumstance, and I also know that I can't blindly shield my kids from every bad thing that happens in life or to people in general, but we haven't gone back since. I feel a strange sense of guilt for that.

I took a friend of mine, a photographer who was visiting from out of town on a long photo walk through the city just last summer, wandering through Victory Park, and finally into the photo supply store beneath the Institute of Art's original home on Amherst Street.

“Good to see people taking pictures there again,” the man behind the counter said. That was at the beginning of the park's subtle revival.

Lately, if you've driven by, especially on one of our beautiful weekend days, the park looks like a Norman Rockwell painting, or maybe a page out of a Richard Scarry book (minus the animals). There are children running and playing, couples sitting on the benches, and artists painting from easels. It's almost striking, the contrast between just a few years ago and now.

The common theme, of course, is the location of the new(er) NHIA building on Lowell Street. In fact, the span between Lowell and Amherst streets just happens to coincide with the park. With the farmer's market set to open for the season June 21, the place will be bursting with life.

On any given weekday, just in front of the Elm Street lunch rush, you can spot a stream of young, usually fashionable adults, clutching large portfolios, or sometimes, bare paintings and artwork. They trek, single file, between the parking garage near the YMCA to the institute.

I used to see them often, to the point where I felt I should say hello and introduce myself. I never did.

These are some of the people breathing life into downtown again.

The proof is in the pudding, or perhaps in the fruit. On the corner of Amherst and Chestnut, an old landmark restaurant, the Post Office Fruit, sat until being sold a while back. The place was a shadow of itself, once a hot-spot for politcos and reporters alike, back when this paper's offices were just a short jaunt down the street.

The “Po Diner” has moved in there. While I can't speak for the food, the facade looks nice. It has an updated look, and a new paint job.

Of course, a fresh coat of paint can change a lot of things. Just ask the students from the Institute of Art.

Adam McCune is the author of “Funny Man Down.” McCune's Manchester appears Thursdays in the New Hampshire Union Leader. You can e-mail Adam at amccune@gmail.com.