ON A cold wintry morning on Avenue Foch, in Paris’s swanky 16th arrondissement, a small gathering awaits the arrival of Anne Hidalgo, the Socialist mayoral candidate. She is the favourite in a race for one of the grander jobs in French politics. The mayor of Paris works from a neo-renaissance mansion, enjoys sweeping powers, and employs 55,000 people. So when a tiny, solitary electric car pulls up at the kerb, the crowd barely notices—until out steps Ms Hidalgo.“Sustainable, responsible and innovative” is the image of Paris Ms Hidalgo says she wants to project. Hence her carefully staged trips in an electric car, and her backing for Scootlib, a proposed electric scooter-hire system akin to the capital’s Vélib for bicycles and Autolib for electric cars. In her €8.5 billion ($11.5 billion) investment programme, unveiled on January 27th, she wants to spend €1.5 billion on public transport, including extended tramlines, and another €1 billion transforming Paris into a wireless “smart city”. She thinks she can do all this without raising local taxes.The race to become mayor of...
from The Economist: Europe http://ift.tt/1fq5xrw
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