Nation: CITIES: SHATTERED ELECTION PATTERNS

THE ills that beset U.S. cities have caused some able mayors to give up: they have announced that they would retire voluntarily as their terms expire this year. Yet in this fall's mayoralty elections, there is no shortage of bold — some would say foolhardy — politicians eager to succeed them, while elsewhere embattled incumbents campaign desperately to retain their posts.

The joy of winning is apt to be short lived. "Everywhere the cities are tottering," reports TIME Senior Correspondent John Steele. "They face near-bankruptcy, decay, population loss, lower property values and ever-increasing tensions. Tomorrow's cities may be deserted at night, their streets foreboding and empty, a nocturnal black ghetto of despair. Even the fringe communities are in danger of becoming slum-burbs."

The atmosphere of crisis is having strange effects on local politics. Some campaigns have become polarized conflicts between those who advocate tough anticrime measures and exploit fears of blacks, and those who take a more conciliatory, reformist position. But in most cities, race and crime are turning out to be volatile and unpredictable issues.

The strains have further weakened Democratic political machines, diminished mayoral patronage powers and eaten into old special-interest coalitions. Republicans, independents and rebels suddenly have solid chances to win in unexpected places. Some examples:

PITTSBURGH GLAMOUR The retirement after ten years of May or Joseph Barr, who found himself "con demned by the blacks because I didn't do enough and by the whites because I did too much," leaves the once invincible Democratic machine bereft. Democratic City Councilman Peter Flaherty, 44, moved into the breach, challenged a mediocre organization candidate in the primary, and won. He looks like a Kennedy and is running independently of party headquarters. His main pitch is anti-bossism. He pleads for harmony between blacks and whites, who are bitterly divided by a Negro drive for more construction jobs.

Although Flaherty remains the favorite, Republican John Tabor, 48, a Yale classmate of New York's John Lindsay and a politician with similar personal appeal, is posing the first serious G.O.P. challenge in 25 years. His Czech background suits ethnic groups, and he is trying to attract the city's blue-collar workers by hinting that he will oppose right-to-work laws if they will yield slightly to black demands. A former state secretary of labor and industry, the moderate Tabor promises to switch millions of dollars from patronage jobs to strengthen the police department. "If that is a law-and-order campaign," says Tabor, "so be it."