Washington DC: Every monsoon, urban residents witness a familiar scene. A road gets resurfaced. A week later, it's ripped open to lay a pipe. The agency that built the road and the one that laid the pipe answer to entirely different departments and have no coordination.
This is a symptom of a system in which states retain control over the functions cities need to operate. Devolving functions, funds and functionaries to elected city governments was the promise of the 74th Constitutional Amendment in 1992. The promise remains largely unfulfilled. Cities drive state economies, and getting states to surrender constituencies they have cultivated for decades is a tall ask.
