Paris has just re-elected its popular mayor Bertrand Delanoë. At the city's helm since 2001, the Socialist mayor of the city of light enjoys high approval ratings from Parisians, who have often applauded his cultural, artistic and civic initiatives. Delanoë is the brains behind such highly-frequented (and free) annual events as Paris Plage (Paris Beach), the Paris Street Music Festival, and Nuit Blanche (White Night). Detractors, though, say the mayor has frittered away public funds on non-lucrative events such as the ones listed above, while making driving in Paris more challenging by reserving new lanes for buses. He now has through 2013 to influence how the world's most visited city will evolve.

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