I spent part of New London's Election Day 2011 enjoying the rare but spectacular spring-like weather down by the Thames River, at Fort Trumbull.

It seemed like the place to be, if you were trying to find some geographic center for New London's historic election and official transition to a new form of government, with voters choosing their first full-time mayor in generations.

The travails at Fort Trumbull, the taking of an established neighborhood by eminent domain, was indeed the reason New London voters overwhelmingly approved a change in their constitution and a new form of government.

That's not just my theory.

I heard it first from Daryl Finizio, who won the mayoral race Tuesday by an overwhelming margin, running as one of the candidates who would abolish the New London Development Corporation, the architects of the taking of Fort Trumbull.

Finizio, with his convincing win, has shown keen political acumen, and I have to agree with him when he says it was the taking of Fort Trumbull that made New London voters long so for change.

After all, three of the other mayoral candidates only recently, as city councilors, approved tax abatements for an out-of-town developer being given land at Fort Trumbull by the NLDC to build apartments.

How out of touch can you be?

So on a beautiful Tuesday in November, the kind of day you usually experience in May here, I strolled by the site of Susette Kelo's once-beloved pink house in Fort Trumbull, taken and torn down with the approval of one of this year's mayoral candidates, and watched the fall leaves blowing across the weed-strewn lot.

And I thought that Tuesday's election might just turn out to be the exorcism the city needed.

Only a few hours later I came across a mini rally downtown at Eugene O'Neill Drive and State Street, with Finizio supporters crowding around all four sidewalk corners of the busy intersection. Passing cars honked and the sign carriers hooted and hollered in return.

It was maybe the most political enthusiasm I've seen around here in a very long time, certainly more enthusiasm than I've seen for any municipal election.

Even in other towns around the region, voters seem to be paying more attention this year to the big race in New London.

As the results came in to City Hall Tuesday night -- practically shaking, I thought, the old stone walls -- even stalwart Republicans seemed impressed as Finizio, the newcomer Democrat, trounced both the traditional Republican and the defrocked Democrat, running as a write-in candidate.

To borrow one losing candidate's slogan -- One City, One Team -- I think that may even be possible for a while now, coming off an election in which there was so much energy and enthusiasm.

It was an uplifting and cathartic experience for the city.

Finizio ran as the candidate of change, and certainly he turned up at the right time on the political scene to be the fresh face and persona that everyone seemed to be yearning for.

He is also a qualified candidate, and I am sure voters recognized that. But I doubt he would have done so well if he had not been the fresh face that his opponents so vigorously criticized him for being. One has to wonder now if that wasn't a terribly misguided attack.

Fort Trumbull looked spectacular Tuesday, full of promise and opportunity, a big blank slate on which New London can now write part of its future.

This is the opinion of David Collins.