History of Paris - 21st Century

21st Century

In March 2001, Paris voted for a left-wing mayor for the first time since 1871. Socialist Bertrand Delanoë is the first openly gay man to hold such a high public position in France. His election was widely seen as a rejection by the electorate of the corruption of the Chirac era. His manifesto promised to tackle the city administration's corruption and inefficiency, as well as reducing crime and improving education—all while keeping taxation stable, but with no real change effected and a halt to progress on poverty and immigration, led to weeks of riots.

Another of Delanoë's undertakings is to continue the trend to reduce motor traffic in Paris and make it easier to use alternative modes of transportation (buses, bicycles, etc.); considerable length of bus lanes have been established, extensive rental bicycle program called Vélib' was introduced in 2007, and tram on the southern "boulevard of the marshals" (inner beltway) was open in 2006 and is due to extend further.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy in 2009 proposed a "Grand Paris" (Greater Paris) project for "a new global plan for the Paris metropolitan region". It was led to unify the communes and to a new transportation plan for the Paris region, while planting a million trees.