The mayor's office by Nemorino
The mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delanoë, has been in office since 2001, when he was elected on a clear platform of breaking the stranglehold that automobile traffic has long held on this otherwise beautiful city. In his campaign, he repeatedly pointed out that ?private motorists, who make up a quarter of road users, take up 94 per cent of Paris?s road surfaces?.After six years the results of his policies are visible all over Paris. Numerous bus, taxi and bicycle lanes have been established on major streets, with space for private motor vehicles typically reduced to one or two lanes.
Until recently conservative politicians would have howled in protest over this sort of progress, but lately they have only been doing some perfunctory grumbling because it hasn't escaped their attention that these improvements are immensely popular.
I've read somewhere that Paris is the least motorized city in France, which may seem like a ridiculous statement if you've ever been caught in city traffic, but what it means is that Paris has the lowest percentage of residents who actually own cars, so there are lots of people who suffer from the noise and pollution of motor traffic without getting any benefit from it.
These people are of course in favor of Mayor Delanoë's policies, just as diehard motorists tend to oppose them. The mayor is also controversial for other reasons, for instance because of his programs to provide subsidized housing for the poor in all twenty arrondissements of Paris. Also he is openly homosexual, like the mayors of Hamburg and Berlin (perhaps this is the beginning of a new trend?), but according to recent polls he is now one of the most popular of all French politicians, with an approval rate of over 60 percent.
Update: In March 2008 Bertrand Delanoë was reelected for a second six-year term as mayor of Paris.
Second photo: Hôtel de Ville from the side.
Third, fourth and fifth photos: Bicycle use in Paris has increased considerably in recent years -- even before Velib! Here you can see some people on bicycles at the Hôtel de Ville.
http://bertranddelanoe.net/vlog-paris/