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A very unusual event was staged in Washington, D.C. last week. A Chicago Cubs World Series celebration? An IRS appreciation dinner? A map-reading seminar for male drivers?

No, it was a conference highlighting the notable accomplishments of welfare reform in America’s urban centers—an equally oxymoronic event. Conventional wisdom has long held that reform may play well in Wisconsin or Oregon, where the people are homogeneous, few in number, and familiar with a work ethic.

But most of Washington’s chattering classes scoff at the idea that welfare reform could possibly score well in metropolitan New York or Los Angeles. Indeed, a Brookings Institution report released the same day as the conference raised the same question.

According to Brookings, counties including the nation’s 100 largest cities held 48 percent of the nation’s welfare population in 1994. Five years later, these counties contained 58 percent of the welfare burden, prompting Brookings researchers to conclude, "Current welfare policies may exacerbate cities’ burden of poverty." Further, the report suggests that high pockets of poverty and a dearth of nearby jobs are key obstacles interfering with the urban poor pursuing work.

Really? While true that these cities have reduced their welfare rolls at a slower rate than less populated areas, the remarkable news is that all of America’s largest cities have slashed their welfare caseloads at historic levels. Those leaving the rolls are also engaging in work at a rate unseen in past periods.

Since the peak of welfare participation in the U.S. in 1994, more than a half million people have left the welfare rolls in New York City. In Los Angeles, approximately 200,000 fewer people are on the rolls today compared to five years ago. In total, the urban counties studied in Brookings report reduced their caseload by 40 percent in the past five years.

Notably, the precipitous welfare caseload decline failed to result in the hardship that reform skeptics predicted would be sure to accompany work-based welfare reform. Further, the unemployment rate is lower following the move of millions from welfare to work, debunking the myth that insufficient jobs exist in the inner city to absorb these new workers.

Happily, the larger-than-expected drop in welfare cases has also resulted in funding excesses that give cities more opportunity to bring innovative solutions to barriers to work than ever before. Presently, there is over $10 billion in unspent welfare funding following three years of federal welfare reform.

Further still, the new federal law offers a policy flexibility that was unknown under AFDC. As evidenced by the cities participating in the July 19 conference, this opportunity is not a lost leader. Long welfare’s mecca, New York is perhaps the most startling example of big city innovation in welfare reform.

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. To complete this task, city officials introduced two concepts unfamiliar to government, let alone its social welfare system: measurement and accountability.

Deploying a program called JOBSTAT, the City’s Human Resources Administration identified a list of 35 indicators that would mark the surest route to executing the mayor’s mission. 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. Imagine the raucous clubhouse after the Chicago Cubs finally win the World Series following a near-century-long drought.

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. Their progress and desire for continued improvement leave much reason for hope, even in America’s big cities.