Thats one version of the story. Another, from Barry's many detractors, who include scores of former supporters, almost the entire city council and members of Congress who thought he mismanaged the city as mayor, is that his comeback is about feeding an epic ego and replenishing his bank account on the $92,500 salary city council members are paid. But after winning 58% of the votes in a September Democratic primary that included seven candidates, including the incumbent, Barry just finished his fourth week councilman representing Anacostia, one of DCs poorest areas.
Barry, who grew up in Memphis but moved to Washington in 1965 while doing work for the Civil Rights Movement, WAS a symbol for a dysfunctional capital city as mayor in the 1980s and 90s as he bloated the citys payroll and ran up a massive debt. He became perhaps Americas most lampooned politician when he uttered the phrase bitch set me up as officers arrested him for cocaine use during an FBI sting in 1990. Barry served six months in prison and recaptured his throne as mayor from 1994-1998.
Now a senior citizen, Barry walks with a slight limp, coughs frequently and looks thinner and MORE frail. Hes in the process of finalizing his fourth divorce. Gone is the kente cloth and other African garb from his previous comeback to politics, replaced by dark slacks, a derby hat and a gray beard. Besides his drug and alcohol addictions, which Barry wont talk about except to say he attends Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, he also suffers from high blood pressure, diabetes and prostate cancer. I dont have health problems, I have health issues, he snaps. And hes also tired of talking about his past. You hardly hear anything about Bill Clinton or Robert Downey, Jr. There's racism in the downfallen community, the ex-mayor says. If youre white, people forget about it in a year.
Under Barrys successor, Anthony Williams, Washington has vastly improved: a balanced budget, lower crime rates, and a reversal of the flight to the suburbs of the 1980s.The former murder capital of the nation is undergoing a revitalization, with retailers like Anne Taylor moving downtown and a housing boom that has sent rents skyrocketing to $1500 a month for one-bedroom apartments in previously undeveloped areas. Barry, while blaming others for the citys budget problems under his leadership, takes credit for the business boom, handing anyone who questions his work a 17-page list of his achievements in office that modestly concludes that Barry brought Washington from a sleepy Southern town to a thriving metropolis.
But that prosperity, no matter who created it, hasnt been spread equally, helping to fuel Barrys latest comeback. For many in Washington, the housing boom has meant they cant afford to live in many of the new apartments built in the city. And the income gap between Washingtons richest and poorest has grown wider, with the average income of the top fifth of Washingtons population 31 times as high as the bottom fifth. The recent controversy over a public-financed baseball stadium, which Barry opposed, illustrated that concern, as both white and black residents complained that $400 million for a ballpark could be spent on social services. This is the biggest stick-up since Jesse James and the Great Train Robbery, Barry said of the stadium deal approved last month that will bring Major League Baseball's Montreal Expos to Washington.
The Yale-educated Williams was once known as the anti-Barry, the technocrat the city needed. Now Williams has became a symbol of a leadership many feel is out of touch with the concerns of residents. Enter the Mayor for Life, who shows up on the streets and asks residents how their mothers are doing. We miss you, were so glad you're back, 51-year-old Sunetta Vincent yells from her car a Safeway parking lot to Barry, who made a short trip there a few days before he was to start his city council job. People come up to him and thank him for giving them summer jobs when they were kids, a program that endeared thousands to Barry when he was mayor. He greets women with a hey darling, whats happening, kissing the younger ones some on the cheek and telling one, you look fabulous, you know. Barry says hes only focused on his ward and not interested in his old job, and most Washington political observers says his support is too limited for him to win another mayoral race. But it looks Barry will stay on the political stage for some time to come..