This is a tale of two cities that occupy one place but exist in two different worlds. One is Washington, the nation's capital, an enclave of sparkling white marble monuments and Government offices. The other is the District of Columbia, an overwhelmingly black city of 629,000, with an appalling crime rate, disintegrating schools and declining municipal services. That other Washington rarely steals the spotlight from the official one, but the scandal surrounding Mayor Marion S. Barry Jr. these days has focused belated attention on its mounting travails.
The beam shines mainly on the mayor. Police and federal prosecutors are investigating the...