This is ... London

Election today. The Conservative candidate is a good campaigner, but like John McCain, the public image is at odds with reality. Will Ken Livingstone, along with Bernard Delanoe of Paris, one of today's most significant public officials worldwide concerning city revival, transit, and livability, be re-elected?

There was concern that Mayor Delanoe wasn't going to be re-elected, as many of his pro-transit and related initiatives were opposed by some quarters. But he did prevail. See "Socialist Delanoe formally relected as Paris mayor."

From the BBC story "Paris welcomes trams back to town: Paris has inaugurated a modern electric tram line along a section of the city's inner ring road, the first time trams have run in the city since 1937":

Mayor Bertrand Delanoe rode the first tram on the new T3 line, built to offer Parisians environmentally-friendly public transport. The line is set to carry 100,000 people a day along a crowded section on the Left Bank of the Seine.

The opening was boycotted by right-wing opposition parties. They have opposed the 300m euro ($400m; £200m) development, calling it a waste of money.

But Mr Delanoe defended the tram project, the largest public transport project for Paris since the city's ring road was built in the 1970s. "We need to respond to pollution with action, it's a necessity of public health and civilisation," he said. "Half of the planet's population lives in towns today, so we need to make behaviour evolve."