I discovered today that Inc. Magazine has released its annual "Best Cities for Entreprenuers" list, and that our own little Portsmouth has been named as one of the top entreprenuerial cities in the country. In its 2006 Hot (obviously not talking about the weather!) Cities rankings, Portsmouth came in at #68 -- that's ahead of Portland/South Portland/Biddeford (97), Dover-Rochester (101), Manchester (105), and Nashua (135). When filted by "small cities" (employment bases of less than 150,000), Portsmouth is ranked at #44.

In fact, the magazine notes the business surge last year was centered outside of the traditional centers, which continue to "lag" behind smaller cities; they're calling the effect "The Revenge of the Boondocks." Read all about it for yourself here. Of course, I dutifully feed the story to P-Herald business editor Michael McCord, who then ran it as the #2 business story of the week here.

I also note that my mom's still-hurricane-ravaged city of Punta Gorda, Florida, came in at #22. Will New Orleans be a boomtown next year?