In mid-1998, Mayor Rudy Giuliani boldly pledged that by century s end, all welfare adults in the city would be engaged in some sort of work activity. Each local agency received monthly reports on their status, and two agencies per week met with top city officials to discuss their successes and obstacles in mayor s endgame. Through this process and subsequent technical assistance, HRA fulfilled its goal and took a big bite out of the welfare state in the Big Apple. Next, the city has set its sights on reaching 100,000 work placements for those who remain on the welfare rolls. With demonstrated leadership at the top, and backroom accountability, optimism has replaced despair in the city s welfare offices.
Many challenges remain in America s largest cities, to be sure.
But while big cities present a set of dilemmas that are larger scale than less populated regions, it is the task of all places to address the unfinished business of welfare reform. Government and community leaders must now focus on assisting those with multiple barriers for work, developing transportation strategies for the jobless to the jobs, and creating economic opportunities for former recipients to climb a career ladder rather than cycle on and off the rolls. It is the earnest manner in which last week s conference participants addressed these concerns that provides another reason the gathering was so unusual. After such a long spell of failure, real and perceived, one might have expected a moment of celebration. Instead, these mission-focused welfare reformers gave a nod to their recent successes but then quickly turned their attention to how they will solve today s new problems and how to parlay their early returns on investment into larger gains in the future.