Yet he cautioned that the city already handled enough of the county's responsibilities.

Probably no other city in Spain could handle such a challenge.

How will the city handle families with medical problems?

The city currently handles about 400,000 welfare cases each month.

At the heart of the issue is how the city handles its current $1.2 billion surplus.

But the city couldn't handle the upkeep on a place like that.

State, city, or county departments of social service handle public agency adoption.

The situation raised serious worries about how the city would handle something like a terrorist attack, he said.

"The city has handled this very well, and when you look at the number of cases, it's been contained dramatically."

It has been the cost of changing the way the entire city handles garbage.