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When he parked his old beater in the mayor’s parking slot early on, he got a ticket, recalls his wife, Jane O’Meara Sanders. “The officer didn’t believe that could be the mayor’s car.”

His opponents, including 11 of the 13 city aldermen, decried his victory, saying he would destroy the economy. They stymied his every move, rejected every appointment he made, and even fired his secretary. He maneuvered around them by creating various mayor’s councils that turned into enduring city services when more fellow progressives swept onto the City Council in subsequent elections.

The city Sanders walks around today is shaped in many ways by the policies he set in motion as mayor, from the tree canopy to the string of parks and bike path along the waterfront.

(snip)

During his eight years as mayor, council meetings were packed and raucous, and voter turnout surged. In 1979, just over 7,000 people voted in the mayoral election. In 1987, over 12,000 did.

(snip)

https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2020-01-26/presidential-candidate-bernie-sanders-burlington-vermont-hometown