After more than 40 years of living or working in New London, I consider myself a devoted and loyal advocate for this remarkable little city.

I can hardly, even after all this time, look down State Street and catch a glimpse of the magnificent Union Station, beyond the tall and proud Soldiers and Sailors Monument, with maybe a ferry or submarine passing on the river, without a little kick of joy.

I have tried over the years to celebrate all the pieces, people, institutions, buildings that I think help make New London so beguiling.

It pained me a few years ago when the morning host of the region's conservative talk radio station chose to demonize the city, complaining about New London's empty buildings, the homeless and crime, telling people to stay away while playing a loud police siren over the air. It was cruel and stupid to write off an entire city, an urban core of the region, and wrong.

I, like many others, believe that the city's best days still lie ahead, and I am glad to argue with the naysayers.

Still, I was startled to read a quote from Mayor Michael Passero, speaking at a $250-a-head fundraiser for his re-election, that New London is "just starting to break out." Just give him four more years, he suggested.

Frankly, I don't see the breaking out, as much as I'd like to.

It's true that a suburban-style apartment complex is being built on Bank Street, on the outskirts of downtown, and I will give the mayor full credit for that development. Alas, one apartment complex does not make a renaissance.

Do me a favor, and next time you see him, ask the mayor what other new development is on the drawing boards.

Another apartment project aimed at Electric Boat millennial employees has stalled for most of the mayor's term.

The mayor has breathed new life, with city money, into the Renaissance City Development Association, installing a loyal campaign volunteer as an employee, and yet there has not been one spark of development on the Fort Trumbull peninsula.

A mayoral donor, a major property owner who is allowed to ignore blight laws with impunity, has been seated on the board of the mayor's redevelopment agency, even though the burned-out carcass of one of his blighted properties now lies in the heart of the redevelopment neighborhood the agency is tasked with marketing. You couldn't make that up.

When the mayor took office, there were two major projects on deck to transform the downtown.

One, the National Coast Guard Museum, keeps slipping deadlines, year by year, and it's beginning to look like it could sink hopelessly underwater before any rescue is mobilized.

You can't blame the mayor for the lack of museum progress. But I think he deserves some blame for not facilitating the other major prospect handed to him: a downtown magnet arts high school at the Garde Arts Center, for which state funding had already been procured at the time he was sworn in.

What else is a city mayor for, if not to twist arms, bring consensus and put shovels in the ground for a major city project already financed by the state.

I don't have a count but I would bet a little bit of money that there are more empty storefronts downtown than when the mayor took office. Some of them now have oversized "Live, Work, Invest" city marketing posters glued across the plate glass, and the ink on the posters is already fading.

The northern end of Bank Street, near the intersection with State Street, what should be New London's Times Square, is now a collection of empty blighted buildings. There was still some life on that block when the mayor took office.

One building is apparently in the process of collapse, with a missing roof, and the sidewalk and street in front have been cordoned off for months. It looks like that will be the state of lower Bank for a long time, with no sign of enforcement. I'm going to guess that the sidewalk on a crucial downtown block will remain closed with orange barriers right into the election season.

The dream of an all-magnet school system as transformative has faded. The new great hope being peddled by the mayor is offshore wind. Is it just me who is skeptical about the promises of a bustling new wind assembly port, an East Coast hub, breathing life into the downtown? I hope I'm wrong about that.

What happened to what was once the mayor's signature policy implementation, the budget-easing pay-as-you-go trash bags? What happened to slowing the deterioration of historic City Hall, never mind the restoration that was promised.

I feel badly about criticizing the mayor for the steep tax increases on his watch, but then I remember his unrelenting and harsh criticism of every new spending suggestion from his predecessor, who in hindsight seems especially frugal.

I also remember the disdain candidate Passero had for what he called his predecessor's cronyism. And then, after winning, Passero appointed one of his campaign minions to the city's chief management position, even though he had no experience running a municipality.

Buckle up. The worst is yet to come. The mayor is now planning to empty a couple more downtown buildings used for city offices and commit to 20 years of escalating rent on the taxpayers' dime. The twisted numbers used to justify this shuttering of downtown buildings, in the name of nicer city employee offices, wouldn't fool a New London first-grader but seem destined to be greenlighted by obedient city councilors.

Maybe the newly abandoned downtown city buildings will get "Live, Work Invest" posters? All those city workers may end up no longer working, shopping and populating the downtown, but they might have better air conditioning in their rented offices.

I agree with people who say Mayor Passero is a nice guy who is trying hard and has the city's best interests at heart. I expect he will get re-elected. There is no back bench in the city's solo political party.

I just wish he'd stop saying that the city is starting to break out and instead try to take a reality check.

Optimism is great, as long as you ground it with honesty.

This is the opinion of David Collins.

d.collins@theday.com