Berlin, London, Paris all controlled by the Left - first time?

[Nathan Newman]

With the fall of the "grand coalition" governing Berlin, the recent election
in Paris, and Ken Livingstone's win in London, there is a remarkable new
landscape of capital city politics in Europe, including the fact that two of
the new mayors (Berlin and Paris) are gay as well.

It will be interesting to see if these changes lead to new innovations in
urban planning politics.  Livingstone is obviously trying to push that with
his battle over control of the London Underground and it is clear that the
Berlin government crisis was related to planning issues.  The changes also
reflect, from what I can tell, the increasing racial diversity of European
cities, especially in Paris and London, so I wonder if there will be any
cross-Atlantic linkages on some of these issues.

In any case, it is an interesting convergence of capitol city politics in
the three mega-capitols of Europe.

-- Nathan Newman