QUEEN MARIA OF DOWNCITY stepped down from her throne as the president of the Downtown Neighborhood Alliance at a festive final    meeting at Trinity Rep on Monday. She leaves her domain in a state of health far above its condition at the outset of her reign in 2003, and her subjects in a state of multiplication. She leaves her DNA successor (as yet unelected) with impressive boots to fill, all the way to their very sharp toes.

Perhaps Maria Ruggieri will not be, as I once predicted, mayor of Providence. “A DNA president was elected mayor in 2006,” I wrote in a column pretending to look back from five years in the future (“Postcard from Providence, 2009,” Jan. 22, 2004). In fact, Mayor Cicilline ran for re-election in 2006 and won, unchallenged by Ruggieri or anyone else.

At this point, she remains the only president the group has ever had. She has run the DNA with a forceful, creative style, and took no prisoners in her role as residents’ representative on the board of the Downtown Improvement District. Her leadership has been robust — smart and tart but not at the expense of honesty and forthrightness on behalf of us who live downtown. I think that if she ever does decide to run for mayor, she’ll kick butt.

Ruggieri leaves downtown for Cranston, actually, to which she moved a couple months ago, retaining a jewelry-design studio in the Promenade District but leaving behind her downtown posts. Yet, as I say, she leaves her domain in darn good shape.

How much so is evident in the bustle of downtown’s streets on most evenings, but especially during the day on weekends. Wow! The block of Westminster from Eddy to Union really has become the new hot shopping district of Providence.

More evidence comes from Ari Heckman, downtown dealmaker responsible for filling space owned by Cornish Associates, Arnold “Buff” Chace’s development company. Cornish owns most of the buildings that have been rehabbed for residential and retail since 1999. (I live in the first, the Smith Building, though my tenancy might end soon now that I must also squeeze a bride into my apartment.)

Coffee at tazza last week elicited more information from Heckman about what’s up downtown:

• A fromagerie to be run by the owners of Farmstead Cheese, in Wayland Square, will open soon in the wine-tasting space at Eno Fine Wine and Spirits, on Westminster. Fine wine and cheese. Yum!

• A small — very small — restaurant will open soon on Washington between Gracie’s and Bravo Brasserie. A venture of Johanne Killeen and George Germon, who own Al Forno (in Corliss Landing), it will consist of 20 seats at a communal table. I have no idea how this will work, but one look at the building and you’ll understand the need for a minimalist concept — which they’ll carry off if anyone can.

• Heckman is negotiating to put a small bodega-esque grocery at Weybosset and Union, where the clothing shop New York New York was.

• Heckman still seeks a restaurant for the large space in the Peerless Building, at Westminster and Union. That would be a big boost for Downcity.

• The 10 spiffy shops clustered mainly from Eddy to Union on Westminster will hold a sidewalk sale on Saturday. A fine shopping block, but one block? And yet Cornish has almost no remaining leasable vacant ground-floor space. Civic leaders should try to promote more lively uses for space now taken up by important but soporific institutional tenants.

• This may be the biggest news: Cornish expects to unveil a new proposal for Grant’s Block, where a 450-car garage on Union flanked by condo buildings at Westminster and Weybosset has tanked because city officials don’t support a garage. Instead, a luxury condo building is now contemplated. It will be traditional, Heckman assured me, clad in fine building materials, with ornate classical detailing.

• I didn’t get it from him, but Heckman says he’s heard the following news: The One Ten Westminster hotel/condo project is not dead, but it has been scaled back. BlueChip Properties has sold the project to O’Connor Capital, of New York, owner of the Industrial Trust Building. The ritzy W hotel remains in play, but with no condos on upper floors. Another rumor says there may be a few condos. Either way, the building will not rise the fabled 40 stories.

• Maybe all this frenetic dealmaking should have Heckman contemplating a run for mayor. That’s my take, not Heckman’s. Since Cicilline can’t run for a third term, maybe it will be Heckman vs. Queen Maria in ’10. Or he could run for the office she just vacated: president of the Downtown Neighborhood Alliance. On second thought, you had better stick to what you do best, Ari. Keep doing deals.

Beastly error: In last week’s column “Pawtucket’s certifiable beauty,” I misquoted a wall: a motto writ large in terra cotta on the side of a building in the Bucket. It should have been “How Do the Beasts Groan” not “How Do the Animals Groan.” I not only regret but am nonplussed by the error!

David Brussat is a member of The Journal’s editorial board ( dbrussat@projo.com).