Big City Bosses

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Before London's first mayoral election in 2000, Livingstone was ejected from the Labour Party for breaking his promise not to oppose the party's official candidate — whom he subsequently trounced. Re-elected to a second term last June, the mayor can afford to be amused that his most contentious policy to date — initiating a fee scheme for vehicles entering central London — has also been his most successful. "The congestion charge is the only thing I've done in 33 years in public life that turned out better than I hoped," he says.

Before the charge was implemented, London, like many European cities, was heading inexorably toward gridlock. At rush hour, bridges looked like parking lots, and pedestrians moved as fast as cars on some of the busiest streets. So Livingstone introduced a congestion-charging scheme that taxes drivers almost $10 a day to enter the city's central zone. Now vehicles flow much more freely, congestion in the zone has dropped and traffic delays are down by 30%. To alleviate the extra strain on public transport, London is investing $19 billion in its bus, underground, road and rail systems over the next five years.

But the scheme has not been an unqualified success. A report commissioned by retailer John Lewis suggests the charge has reduced sales at its Oxford Street branch by 5.5%; the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry says 42% of the 334 retailers it surveyed blamed the charge for a drop in their business. "There is a disputed result in terms of the London economy, but an undisputed result in terms of reducing traffic," says Tony Travers, director of the Greater London Group at the London School of Economics.

The charge hasn't raised as much money to invest in public transport as projected, either. The first year's take was $127 million, just two-thirds of the expected $190 million, and not enough to avoid fare hikes. Livingstone is loathed and liked in almost equal measure, but many Londoners balk at his pledge to raise the congestion charge 60% to around $15 in July. Nevertheless, he has set the gold standard for audacity in tackling a problem that plagues all major European cities. And he plans to seek a third term in 2008 so he can complete London's transport overhaul. "I'd like to push that through," he says, "and demonstrate that somebody can get projects done on time and and on budget."

Annika Billstrom / Stockholm
The Homemaker
Outwardly at least, Annika Billström doesn't match the stereotypical image of a hard-nosed big-city mayor. A slender woman, Billström, a 49-year-old Social Democrat, found out how pervasive that image is when she was elected to the top position in the Swedish capital. "In the beginning I met a lot of resistance" as Stockholm's first female mayor, she recalls. "Many doubted my ability to do the job. 'Will she really be able to cope, that little girl?' they said. They questioned whether I had sufficient determination to realize my intentions."

Nobody is asking that question now. A loyal party soldier whose first job was as assistant treasurer at the Social Democrats' headquarters, Billström rose through the ranks and in 2002 ousted a conservative regime from Stockholm's city hall. Like Rome's Veltroni, she believes in accessibility: every Thursday she gets out of the office to meet and greet Stockholmers in schools and workplaces. She even writes her own blog at www.annikasblogg.se. "It's not enough to receive a report from an official," she says. "I must experience it myself."

Accessibility — of affordable housing — is one of Billström's biggest challenges. Stockholm, like many cities in Europe, faces rising demand for housing coupled with stagnant or tightening supplies, a crunch that has forced prices up and increasingly put home ownership out of reach of all but affluent residents. The population of Stockholm grew by around 11% in the 1990s, from 674,000 to 750,000, and some 100,000 people were waiting for housing in the city when Billström took office. She's pledged by 2006 to provide 20,000 new homes for rental and ownership in price ranges that students and lower-income workers can afford. "There is plenty of space in Stockholm, so it is up to developers to build," she says.

Trouble is, not everyone agrees. Claes Trygger, a leading Stockholm environmentalist, calls Billström "desperate" in her efforts to meet election promises. "Desperation cannot, however, excuse what's going on," he says. According to Trygger, the mayor's plans to build on land abutting Stockholm's National Park would violate laws designed to protect the city's green spaces. Trygger, who represents the Union for the EcoPark, a collection of 50 Swedish environmental associations, wants the remaining open land in central Stockholm to be preserved for recreational purposes. Instead, Billström should look outside the center for available building sites, he argues.

Other mayors face a real challenge in maintaining affordable housing within city limits as real-estate prices soar and young families are drawn, often reluctantly, to cheaper digs in sprawling suburbs. Getting them back requires not only schemes to encourage construction and subsidize access, but also to settle them in cities with enough parks, childcare centers and schools. Billström knows this well, and dismisses Trygger's protests. "Stockholm's green profile is a vital policy," she says, "and we've already made a major effort to clean up the city and improve the open spaces, but there are always people who oppose new developments."

Billström's commitment to affordable housing stems, she says, from her childhood as one of six children of a single mother. "We have to support those people who have come on hard times," she says, "and to make sure that, irrespective of background, everyone gets the best possible start in life."

Klaus Wowereit / Berlin
The Glamour Guy
When money is tight, the conventional response is to cut back on frivolous expenditure. Klaus Wowereit, the mayor of Berlin, is anything but conventional. Long-term population loss has ravaged municipal finances since reunification in 1990. The divided East Berlin and West Berlin received hefty subsidies from their respective cold-war governments, but when the Wall came down in 1989, East Germany simply disappeared and the German government, then in Bonn, ended subsidies to West Berlin. Some 100,000 jobs there disappeared and 30,000 Berliners moved to the suburbs, draining the tax base and pushing the city's debt up to €59.4 billion. Wowereit, 51, a member of the Social Democratic party (spd), was forced to close swimming pools, ask teachers to work longer hours without more pay, impose a hiring freeze for some municipal employees, and consolidate the city's three opera houses.