Miro Weinberger announced today that he will not seek a fifth (three-year) term as mayor of Burlington. He has occupied the position for 12 years, the longest continuous tenure of any Queen City mayor, but the better part of his legacy may amount to nothing much more than occupancy. His record is mixed at best, and he wouldn’t have made it this far if not for the endemic divisiveness of Burlington’s left.

In each of his last two campaigns, he got less than 50% of the vote. Last time, in 2021, he polled just under 43% and won the race by a mere 129 votes. In both 2018 and 2021, multiple candidates running to his left split the majority of the vote, allowing Weinberger to win with mere pluralities.

Whatever you think of the achievements of his early years, it’s inarguable that the Progressives made a full comeback on his watch. The Progs held a majority on City Council for several years. It made his job more difficult to be sure, but he failed to build the city Democratic Party or enhance its allure to the voters.

Weinberger walked into his first victory, thanks to the troubled Bob Kiss years leaving a stain on the Progressive brand. At the time he was a fresh young face, widely considered a top Democratic contender for future statewide office. That never happened, and while he’s young enough to have a second political act, he’ll have to work his way back into the arena.

Well, that’s the politics. What about policy? On balance, his record is kind of lukewarm.

He deserves full credit for restoring the city’s credit rating from the post-Kiss toilet. Otherwise, given his dozen years in office, it’s kind of remarkable how many issues just kept on festering and festering.

Take The Pit, for instance. Please, take it. Now, Miro isn’t entirely (or maybe even mostly) to blame, but he certainly didn’t move the needle. It was a gaping chasm in the heart of the city for years under his watch. The Memorial Auditorium seems to be stuck in neutral as well.

Weinberger gets credit for finally bringing the Champlain Parkway into reality, but it sure took long enough. The project sat on the drawing board throughout his lengthy tenure. The repurposing of the Moran Plant also took a very long time, and the end product is not exactly the highest possible outcome.

Seven Days credited him as having “ushered in a zoning change that will allow housing to be built on what are now empty parking lots in the South End.” But again, it took years of the city’s housing crisis getting so bad that no serious person could object to loosening restrictions on housing.

It must also be said that the city’s problems, real and perceived, with crime, public safety, and public cleanliness have worsened during his mayoralty. His supporters are eager to pin the blame on Council Progressives and Chilttenden County State’s Attorney Sarah Fair George, but c’mon now, Miro was the mayor. He doesn’t get to play innocent bystander.

To be fair, being mayor of Burlington ain’t easy. Change of any sort draws instant and fervent opposition. All our cities and towns are struggling under the weight of our opioid and housing crises, which are beyond any individual civic leader’s control.

But still, He was in charge, and it’s not unfair to conclude that he failed to wield his power as effectively as he could.

Is the city better off now than when he took office? On balance, I think the answer is yes. But it’s a closer call than it ought to be, given that he entered office with something approaching carte blanche and he stayed in power for a dozen years. If there were ways for the city’s leader to be more impactful in its politics or in solving big problems, Weinberger largely failed to find them.

He will pass into history with the record for longest sustained occupancy in the office, but it’s doubtful that his name will be high on the list of the city’s most accomplished mayors.