If it's true all politics is local, then it seems like local cities are a good way to assess candidates' approaches to urban policy.

Since the gubernatorial race will swing into New London next week, in the form of a debate at the Garde Arts Center, I couldn't help but muse about which candidate might promise more for this city.

I could have missed it, but I haven't seen anything specific in one leading candidate's urban plan about what he would do for New London.

Gov. Dan Malloy, on the other hand, has not only specific plans but a solid record of providing New London significant help.

I would suggest Gov. Dan Malloy has promised more resources to New London than any other recent Connecticut governor, unless you count the money the felony-prone Gov. John Rowland spent to buy a neighborhood, move out the residents and businesses and then tear it down. He also gave a lot of tax credits to a company that left town when they expired.

Aid to New London is important even if you don't live in the city, because downtown New London, as Steve Sigel, director of the Garde, likes to say, is the region's downtown.

He's right, and what's good for New London is good for just about everyone in the region.

In thinking about next week's debate, it occurs to me the governor will have a most appropriate stage at the Garde to talk about what he is doing for this needy little city, one of so many in Connecticut.

Indeed, the Garde itself is a significant part of proposals in which the Malloy administration is crafting to transform this little city - and he is not even planning to tear it down.

The Garde is slated to become part of a $31 million project to turn the old vaudeville theater into a pioneering new regional arts magnet school.

The new school, which will fill a big urban block in the heart of downtown, made up of what are now mostly empty buildings and blank storefronts, will include a new theater connected to the old one as well as classrooms, and teaching and rehearsal space.

It will become a crown jewel in New London's developing all-magnet school system, an innovative education plan that promises not only to improve city schools but to draw students from suburban towns, by family choice.

That's regionalization with a capital R.

Not only does the Garde project promise great things for education in the city, it will improve a beloved arts institution in the city, one that has thrived despite enormous competition from two regional casinos.

A new, bigger Garde, one attracting more theatergoers, students, teachers, school staff and parents to the region's downtown, on a daily basis, will be good for education, culture and business.

Speaking of bringing people to town, Gov. Malloy has also pledged $20 million in state money toward the development of the new National Coast Guard Museum downtown.

Better schools and a vibrant downtown can put New London on a winning trajectory.

The third leg of a transformative tripod of development for New London would be the establishment of the new Thames River Heritage Park, linking attractions on the Groton and New London sides of the river by water taxi, a plan that seems to be creeping closer to reality.

Gov. Malloy has not yet promised to get that park off the drawing board, but he did ride a recent pilot run of the water taxi.

I took his campaign-style stop that day as a promising sign that good things come in threes.

Maybe candidate Tom Foley will offer some specific proposals and plans to help the region's downtown, when he is here next week. I hope so.

This is the opinion of David Collins

d.collins@theday.com

Twitter: @DavidCollinsct