oversee the application of norms in areas such as health, building maintenance, street commerce, and public safety. In the context of the Great Depression, he took measures to ensure that the underprivileged were regularly fed through public expense. He also soon began a series of major public works: paving most streets (with measures take to replace the many types of pavement in use with a single material); radical measures in electrification and the expansion of the water supply network; authorising the first buildings reflecting a modernist style; widening and straightening Calea Victoriei, as well as other major routes (with the reshaping of squares such as Piaţa Universităţii); sanitizing and embanking the Băneasa Lake, as well as other lakes and ponds in northern Bucharest. Because of the large number of public works executed, he was nicknamed "the pickaxe mayor". In a speech, he said he wanted "to profit from the widespread unemployment" to carry out large public works, "to get rid of dirt roads and to bring civilization to the outskirts and suburban areas" of Bucharest. Dobrescu also banned the then-widespread street peddling, making it mandatory that all sales transactions had to be made indoors. In July 1931, following a conflict with the Ministry of Internal Affairs, he was suspended from office. However, the government soon reversed its decision following strong public reactions. Although widely popular, Dobrescu's measures contributed, according to the newspaper Dimineaţa, to creating "unease — inside his party — unease on the outside". He eventually came into conflict with the Ion G. Duca National Liberal government and was removed from office 13 November 1933; the move caused a scandal, and Dobrescu was reinstated as mayor on 26 November, only to be deposed by the new Gheorghe Tătărescu cabinet (which had taken over following Duca's assassination by the fascist Iron Guard) on 18 January 1934. Citizen Committees Dobrescu's leftist convictions eventually brought him into conflict with the PNŢ: he left in December 1935 to establish his own political movement, which took the name of the popular institution he had helped create — the Citizen Committees. It remained a minor anti-fascist party, and disappeared in 1938, when King Carol II replaced all political forces with his National Renaissance Front. Legacy His modernization of Bucharest received much praise. Novelist Liviu Rebreanu called him "the best mayor that the capital ever had", while N. D. Cocea said that "in 4 years, he