Other cities may boast of innovative, hard-bargaining mayors, but at least one urban center is clattering along in just the opposite direction. Beset by financial woes, high crime and decaying city services, Washington has now suffered the indignity of having its mayor, Marion S. Barry, stripped of nearly all power. As part of a $1 billion federal-aid package included in the new budget agreement, nine of the city's major agencies, covering everything from schools and housing to public works and the police, have been taken away from Barry and placed under the jurisdiction of a financial control board, which was appointed...
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