'Global problems need local solutions'

The city mayors driving social change

- Ashifa Kassam European community affairs correspondent

Zohran Mamdani, the new mayor of New York City, is the latest example of an urban progressive promising major change

(JEENAH MOON/REUTERS)

In Budapest, it was a call to flout the Hungarian government's ban on Pride that catapulted the city's mayor into the headlines.

In Barcelona, it was a bold scheme to do away with tourist flats. And in Paris, it was a drastic initiative that included making the Seine swimmable and its banks pedestrian-freindly.

In each case, the actions of the mayorand the global attention they elicited - hinted at how the role of city leader is changing. Gone are stereotypes of endless ribbon cutting ceremonies and flesh-pressing events, replaced by mayors being increasingly thrust into the vanguard of taking on society’s thorniest challenges.

"I think mayors around the world have started to realise that we have a new role, one that didn’t exist before,” said Jaume Collboni, the mayor of Barcelona. “We've realised the global problems we’re all facing require local solutions.”

When Collboni took the reins in Barcelona in 2023, he noticed that one topic came up repeatedly in his discussions with other mayors: the soaring cost of housing. This observation then snowballed into Mayors for Housing, an alliance of 17 mayors across the continent seeking solutions to the crisis.

“We're the ones on the frontlines of citizens’ daily lives,” he said. “So it’s not surprising that we’re also the ones saying that things can’t continue this way.”

From Zohran Mamdani to Sadiq Khan, mayors’ increasingly global profile has led to greater scrutiny of their actions, propelling some into the crosshairs of the culture wars. In Paris, for example, mayor Anne Hidalgo’s years-long effort to make the city greener and create 15-minute neighbourhoods was lauded by progressives around the world, while far-right and centre-right forces pushed back.