Mayor Levar M. Stoney sees bright prospects ahead for Richmond if COVID-19 can be defeated quickly.

Ready to start his second four-year term next week, he has ideas galore, but he said the key to it all is “vaccination.”

He is counting on the federal government to rapidly roll out the injectable medications so that the broader population can be treated and gain immunity so there can be a return to normalcy.

In an interview, Mayor Stoney said in an effort to counter community misgivings, he plans to be first in line when one or more of the approved vaccines becomes widely available. He said that he will join the city health department in pushing for everyone to get the shots and in seeking to counter misinformation.

“I expect some reluctance particularly in Black and brown communities” as a result of past medical mistakes and misdeeds. But he said that based on the evidence, the vaccines are working as designed, with few if any side effects.

The mayor, who capped his first term by tak- ing down the city’s Confederate statues, already has plenty of projects to complete, including carrying out the campaign promise he made in October to move quickly to build a new George Wythe High School.

He also has promised to get a long-stalled slavery heritage development underway in Shockoe Bottom, to bring a gambling casino and resort to the city to stoke economic growth and to move ahead with a task force on homelessness.

The mayor still has criminal justice reform measures to install, including creation of a civilian oversight board to police the police.

But there are other things the New York-born mayor wants to get done as a seasoned city leader who will turn 40 in March. He is far from the newcomer who entered City Hall four years ago to take charge after serving as secretary of the commonwealth in Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s cabinet.

His to-do list includes securing funding for universal pre-kindergarten to ensure all of the city’s children are prepared for learning and also to press for the transformation of public housing communities into mixed-income communities.

He also plans to step up efforts to create affordable housing — meaning apartments with lower rents and homes with lower price tags to allow those at the lower end of the income scale to continue to have opportunities to live in the city.

Like many, Mayor Stoney said he is frustrated at the slow pace of the Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority in completing the Creighton Court mixed-income transformation and getting started on other similar projects.

As he starts his new term, many city residents remain skeptical of his abilities as evidenced by his election. In November, he won a five-way race with 40 percent of the vote, indicating someone other than him was the choice of 60 percent of those who cast ballots.

That reflects some of his shortcomings in the first term, including making promises he could not keep. For example, he successfully campaigned to raise the city’s sales tax on prepared meals in order to build five new schools but ended up with only enough money to build three.

Mayor Stoney started his first term having a study done on ways to improve internal operations that impact residents. He made a big production of it after it was done. But four years later, there’s evidence that not much has changed.

Others give him higher marks. Earlier this week, the mayor was named a Rodel Public Leadership Fellow by the Aspen Institute, which seeks to bring together for dialogues what it describes as “the nation’s most promising political leaders.”

As he starts his new term, Mayor Stoney is proud the city has been largely able to weather the impact of the coronavirus and that its economy has proven more resilient than expected. The city is ending the year with a larger than expected surplus of unspent dollars.

The mayor also began several COVID-19-related initiatives, including an eviction diversion program that seeks to aid people with overdue rent and a day care program for children of essential workers.

Ahead, the mayor is likely to see his ability to gain essential approvals enhanced.

He appears to have secured a working majority on City Council that largely ensures he will have the five votes he needs to pass ordinances and policy measures. The most active critic of Stoney administration proposals, 2nd District Councilwoman Kim B. Gray, gave up her seat to run unsuccessfully against him and will no longer be in a decision chair.

In the first two weeks of his second term, the mayor is poised to claim victory for his proposal to beef up funding for the city’s Affordable Housing Trust Fund that provides loans and grants to support such developments.

At the first regular meeting of the new year, City Council is expected to easily approve his plan to direct a specific stream of real estate tax revenue to the fund, enabling the fund to grow to more than $10 million within five years, and achieve his goal of building 10,000 new units of affordable housing by 2030.

In addition, the groundwork already has been laid for a host of other projects that have largely been dormant, including the redevelopment of 60 acres of city property on Arthur Ashe Boulevard.

Along with a likely council majority, he also is assured of having far greater control of the bureaucracy than at any point in his tenure.

Just a few weeks ago, his chief of staff, Lincoln Saunders, moved from the Mayor’s Office into the No. 2 role in the government — acting chief administrative officer — with council’s assent. Mr. Saunders took on the task after the interim CAO, Lenora Reid, suffered a stroke.

What Richmonders will soon find out is how well the mayor can take advantage of his strong position and achieve the kind of lasting legacy he wants to achieve.