April 14, 1998

Clyde Haberman column contends that latest pedestrian barriers put up by city in front of Saks Fifth Avenue and Radio City Music Hall are nicer to look at than metal contraptions that police continue to guard elsewhere on 50th and 49th Streets to keep walkers at bay while cars make their turns; notes that new ones are made of wrought iron and modeled after similar barriers in Vienna; maintains that new barriers have 'Old World charm,' but questions whether they are necessary (M)

Third article in series, Does Workfare Work?, finds acute lack of day care is hindering shift to workfare; New York City has largely failed to keep promise to move single mothers into work programs, essential step toward leaving dependency behind, partly because of child care shortages and city's failure to finance more care; number of mothers excused from workfare has soared in recent months, with city lacking child care for 61 percent of children whose mothers are supposed to participate in program; Mayor Rudy Giuliani administration, which vowed in 1997 to spend $28 million on 12,000 additional child care openings, has delayed plans, and city has fallen behind so often on its payments to child care centers that even those with openings often turn away mothers on welfare; photos; maps (L)

500-pound concrete and steel beam, supended beneath upper deck of Yankee Stadium, comes loose and falls into empty seats, forcing stadium to temporarily suspend baseball games; city and private engineers begin full structural inspection of 75-year-old facility; officials say they hope to reopen stadium within day; begin work on backup plans to move games to Shea Stadium or elsewhere if more problems are found; mishap seen strengthening hand of team's principal owner, George Steinbrenner, who has been negotiating with city officials for several years for construction of new stadium; diagrams; photos (M)

Dr Robert J Barro, one of nation's most prominent economists, decides to back out highly publicized, exceptionally lucrative deal he negotiated with Columbia University and will instead remain at Harvard University; it is not clear what motivated Barro to change his mind weeks after accepting Columbia's offer, which involved pay package of nearly $300,000 and wide range of benefits (L)

Gala performance of opera and ballet at Metropolitan Opera House on April 23 ushers in Kirov Opera Festival, A Celebration of Russian Opera, which runs until May 9; will be conducted by Valery Gergiyev; photo; opera lovers and amateur singers in London will have opportunity to sing with Royal Opera; about 2,000 tickets priced at about $33 each are being sold for day of rehearsals with Royal Opera Chorus, at Barbican Hall, followed by evening concert alongside soloists and chorus and Orchestra of Royal Opera House; new $3 million security system is in operation at 96-year-old Egyptian Museum in Cairo, home to treasures of King Tutankhamen; photo; J Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles will open exhibition of more than 125 daguerreotypes made in 1840's and 50's by European and American pioneers of medium (M)