The large deck at On The Waterfront restaurant, with its pleasing view of the Thames River and an impressive Italian buffet, filled quickly. The food and view are great, but that isn't what drew the crowd on a recent Thursday evening.

Those in attendance came in droves to support the re-election campaign of New London Mayor Michael Passero, who is seeking - and will win on Nov. 7 - his third four-year term. The mood was upbeat and confident, even celebratory some 5 1/2 weeks before Election Day.

Democratic leaders from past and present were on hand: state Sen. and former Democratic Town Chair Martha Marx; State Rep. and former City Councilor Anthony Nolan; City Councilor Efrain Dominguez; former Mayor and state Rep. Jay B. Levin; former mayors and town chairs Bill Satti and Tony Basilica, with his wife, Gwen, a former Board of Education chair. Former Town Chair Kevin Cavanagh was there, too. There were plenty of private donors in attendance as well, contributing anywhere from $25 to $1,000 to support the mayor's re-election.

Passero, a 67-year-old Democrat, is an attorney and retired New London firefighter. He is running against a largely unknown and unseen Republican opponent who heads a slate bereft of serious candidates for either city council or board of education. This election, like the last, will likely keep all seven seats on both the City Council and Board of Education occupied by Democrats.

Passero has presided visibly and effectively over a city that is finally beginning to achieve its - dare we say it? - potential.

Long gone, thankfully, are the drama, division and weirdness that dominated the four years his predecessor, Daryl Finizio, occupied the mayor's office. Passero doesn't box or paint fire hydrants or wear hats to public meetings. His first months in office in 2015 were spent resolving lawsuits, grievances and complaints against the city left over from Finizio's reign of chaos.

I once mentioned New London's potential to Passero at a development forum during his first term. He winced.

"I hate that word," he said.

He's heard all about potential while living here as a young Ocean Beach lifeguard, a career firefighter, city councilor and, beginning in 2015, the city's second elected strong mayor of this era. His disdain is grounded in the oft-repeated phrase "New London has so much potential, but ...." It was just a polite way of saying the city was underachieving - or worse.

The critics - and there have been many - have pointed to crime, poverty, high taxes, decrepit low-income housing, troubled schools, lots of vacant downtown store fronts, and any number of promising development projects over the years that showed great potential (there's that word again) but never materialized.

Federally driven redevelopment during New London's city manager era in the 1970s had replaced State Street with Captain's Walk, a pedestrian mall that spelled doom for many longtime downtown merchants and chased others to the then-new Crystal Mall in Waterford. The I-95 expansion around that time had split the city in two at its north end, seemingly isolating the vibrant Hodges Square neighborhood.

The downtown YMCA had closed, the Chamber of Commerce moved its offices to the suburbs, and the once-proud Mohican Hotel had been converted to subsidized housing, virtually shutting down its popular rooftop venue with spectacular high-rise views.

I-95 runs right through the middle of New London, a city of about 27,000 that also hosts a busy train and bus station, public and private beaches, and the booming Cross Sound Ferry service to and from Orient, N.Y., and, during warm weather, Block Island. Despite all of this, New London seemed unable to climb out of its rut.

Pfizer was searching for a buyer for its gleaming $300 million Global Research & Development Headquarters, built on a 29-acre former waterfront brownfield only a decade earlier. The company had arrived in New London with great hope, fanfare, and about 2,000 employees who were now headed back across the Thames River to Groton. The expectation had been that Pfizer's presence in the city would spur development in the nearby Fort Trumbull neighborhood that had been taken and leveled by the New London Development Corporation. The controversial taking and leveling happened, but the development never did.

For Sale signs dotted the city's southern district where residents had tired of all that unfulfilled potential. Many of them were saddled with high property taxes for which they received little in the way of municipal services.

In recent years, though, things have begun to change. The city is trending in the right direction with Passero, a New London Guy, leading the charge. With strong, capable leadership inside his administration, Passero will readily acknowledge he's not doing it alone.

Shortly after taking office, Passero hired retired State Police Lt. Col. Steven Fields as his chief administrative officer, and Jeanne Milstein, the state's former Child Advocate, as the city's human services director. Later in his first term, Passero hired a young, hungry Felix Reyes as the city's director of economic development and planning. Fire Chief Tom Curcio and Police Chief Brian Wright were promoted more recently after rising through the ranks of their respective city departments.

Electric Boat, the region's largest and fastest growing employer, bought the Pfizer property at a fire-sale price and brought 3,000 new employees to the city. A housing boom followed with new, high-end condominiums and apartments, including those built on Parcel J - a Bank Street property the city redevelopment agency had been trying to develop for decades.

A new public high school is under construction and there are solid development plans in the works for the long-vacant Fort Trumbull peninsula. That includes the community center so many in the city have wanted for decades and which Passero has almost single-handedly willed to happen. With its $40 million price tag, some decry the project as too expensive, but the mayor has been undeterred.

The NLDC, the city's controversial development arm, has morphed into the kinder, gentler Renaissance City Development Association. Just last month, the Planning & Zoning Commission approved plans by a New Haven developer to build 500 residential units and a six-story parking garage on the peninsula overseen by the revamped RCDA.

"This is a day a lot of us have been waiting for," said Bill Sweeney, of the New London-based TCORS law firm that represents the developer.

Work is due to begin soon on the $150 million United States Coast Guard Museum next to the train/bus station and ferry terminal on New London's waterfront. The six-story, 80,000-square-foot museum is scheduled for completion in 2025, though that timeline is optimistic. Nevertheless, when it's finally opened, the museum will draw an estimated 300,000 annual visitors to New London.

With that in mind, ambitious developers have bought downtown properties and are improving them for businesses and residents alike. Existing restaurants are recovering from the pandemic and new ones are popping up. There are still some vacant downtown properties, but not nearly as many.

The State Pier project has been mired in controversy, but the first of the massive wind turbine components have begun arriving as the pier's impressive expansion continues. Passero fought relentlessly for New London to not only have a seat at the Connecticut Port Authority table, but threatened to stall the project unless his city got more of the proceeds he believed it was entitled to. Going forward, New London will get the money.

The Chamber of Commerce of Eastern Connecticut has moved from its rented space in Waterford into a newly renovated former brokerage house on Eugene O'Neill Drive. The chamber raised millions in cash and in-kind contributions, hired New London-based Carlin Contracting for the major renovation, and is in the process of moving into a showpiece headquarters that it now owns. Longtime Chamber President Tony Sheridan, who initiated the move, said Passero was instrumental in making it happen. He attended the mayor's fundraiser, too.

Across the street, two historic buildings - Citizens Bank and The Day - have been purchased by High Tide Capital, a Maine-based developer already with a proven track record in New London. High Tide, which boasts experience in restoration and preservation of historic properties, plans to transform the two adjacent aging properties to commercial and residential space in a city that craves more of both.

"It's a huge project," Dash Davidson, a High Tide Principal, said at the time of the Citizens Bank building purchase. "We're very excited about everything happening in the city."

The city still has plenty of challenges, but its optimism is palpable. As he pushes to achieve even more of his city's potential in the coming term, Passero might not even cringe anymore at the mention of the word he once hated.