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Since her landslide victory over incumbent Mayor Tishaura Jones last Tuesday, Spencer has no doubt been inundated with advice, solicited and otherwise, about what goals and policies should define her coming term.

Allow us to pile on:

If the impetus for Spencer’s victory had to be boiled down to one phrase, it’s, Back to basics.

It’s probably too simplistic to say Jones lost big because of her administration’s mishandling of January’s Snowmageddon. But that failure was definitely emblematic of a mayor who was so fixated on expanding the role of the city into areas normally handled by charities and social workers that day-to-day municipal functionality suffered.

Removing snow. Filling potholes. Collecting garbage. Controlling traffic. Answering 911 calls. These and too many other basic city functions have too often felt back-burnered by a mayoral administration that was quick to pass out $500 apiece to poor families, to fund residents’ kids’ higher education and even to consider lending money to residents to bring their automobile registration tags current.

Enough, said almost two-thirds of the city’s voters.

Spencer’s new administration will be judged, quickly and relentlessly, on how well she delivers on her core campaign promise to get the city’s proverbial trains running on time. Everything else is secondary.

That goal must begin with putting the right people in place — and removing those who have shown they aren’t with the program. For starters, Spencer says she will (and she immediately should) fire city Streets Direct Betherny Williams, who waited 10 days after the January blizzard to personally assess the situation.

In addition to shoring up basic city services, the biggest challenge facing Spencer will be making ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ans feel safe in their own city. And she’s taking on that responsibility just as our friends in Jefferson City have complicated matters.

Jones touted the city’s lower homicide rate on her watch — which was broadly reflective of lower homicide rates in most of the country — but the city’s high overall crime rate remains the problem that drives most of its other problems. The sense of lawlessness that pervades the Downtown area has, itself, spawned a major economic crisis as residents, businesses and convention dollars have all fled. Jones’ de-emphasis of street-level policing did nothing but exacerbate the problem.

While Jones had unrealized options there, Spencer’s options will be more limited because of the recent state takeover of city police. Spencer has rightly said she will continue Jones’ exploration of a legal challenge against that takeover, if possible. Regardless of whether that’s successful, Spencer will have a bully pulpit from which she can and should loudly press for more (and better paid) police on the streets.

One of ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½â€™ more baffling problems of the past four years has been its inability to constructively spend windfall pots of money. The city’s fumbling of a $37 million program meant to spur North Side economic development — a program that ended up steering funds to nonexistent businesses and vacant buildings — stands as a prime example.

Given that and other dysfunction that has gripped much of the city’s fiscal governance in the past four (and more) years, it’s probably a good thing that the $250 million-plus from the NFL Rams settlement is still sitting unused, gathering interest. With tight budget years approaching, the temptation will be great to use that money to backstop basic city functions. Spencer must resist that temptation and view that pot as a potential gamechanger for the city.

As we have said many times, the revitalization of Downtown is crucial to the revitalization of ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ as a whole, in a way that no other neighborhood is. Jones never seemed to get that; Spencer appears to. The business community’s offer to match city funds to repair the city’s economic doorstep is, last we heard, still on the table. Spencer should move quickly to seal that deal and announce to the world that Downtown ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ is back on a path to vitality. The Rams money could be key to that effort.

As important as all of this to a successful mayoral administration will be a change in tone.

Jones’ tenure was characterized too often by divisiveness, lack of transparency and a knee-jerk refusal to consider even constructive criticism. Her supporters’ 11th-hour attempt to blatantly racialize the election was a truly disappointing turn that did nothing to ease the racial divide in this roughly 50-50 city.

Spencer’s political history of traversing racial lines should be helpful on that front. We suspect she doesn’t need to hear it from us, but we’ll remind her anyway that for any ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ mayoral administration today to have a chance at success, it must look like ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½.

While we endorsed Spencer in the election, and we believe she has the right stuff for a successful tenure in Room 200 of City Hall, we won’t be shy about calling out missteps when we see them going forward. Keeping her door open to supporters and critics alike will in itself be an important first step toward getting ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ back on solid footing.