Panel addresses role of government

Regional Science Professor Thomas Reiner expressed extreme concerns about what he called "a strong anti-government mindset" during a speech to a packed house yesterday in Meyerson Hall. Reiner, a member of a roundtable discussion on "Reinventing Government," joined four other panelists in the latest installment of the "Reversal of Fortunes" series focusing on the decline of American cities. "We need to first address the rationale for government and reinvent why we have government," he explained. Reiner stressed the need for reassessing the proper role government should play in society and reestablishing specific goals for both government and the private sector. "We must reject the notion that government is an enemy? that taxation is theft and that any activity in the public service is mainly to satisfy self-serving bureaucrats," he said in demanding that government and the public work together. Ronald Bednar, the policy officer to Gov. Tom Ridge (R), spoke on his experience reorganizing state government through consolidation of programs and departments which have "outlived their usefulness" and for "areas that need reform." Carolyn Adams, dean of Temple University's School of Arts and Sciences, noted that "Philadelphia politics look positively pacific relative to what they looked like? 10 years ago." "City Hall is less and less the place where the action is? the locus of conflict and decision making has shifted away from City Hall," she added. Listing such programs as job training, educational funding, environmental regulation and economic development, Adams observed that state government is emerging as a "pivotal" force that cannot be ignored by local administrations. And she stressed the need to "form coalitions with state representatives and legislators who represent suburb communities that share many of the same problems with center cities." Diana Reed, a city planning consultant, elaborated on the necessity of downsizing wasteful systems corrupted "with spaghetti at the top." And Ira Harkavy, a City and Regional Planning professor who directs the Center for Community Partnerships, ended the discussion with his thoughts on the "acute chronic crisis" that is the government. "The condition of the American city is indicative of the American political system as an abject failure," Harkavy explained. Karl Ness, a first-year City Planning graduate student, said he was "intrigued" with the discussion and applauded Harkavy's command of the subject of urban decline. The final "Reversal of Fortunes" discussion, entitled "Where Do We Go From Here?" will be held April 16.

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