  We show how to obtain the two-dimensional black hole action by dimensional
reduction of the three-dimensional Einstein action with a non-zero cosmological
constant. Starting from the Chern-Simons formulation of 2+1 gravity, we obtain
the 1+1 dimensional gauge formulation given by Verlinde. Remarkably, the
proposed reduction shares the relevant features of the formulation of Cangemi
and Jackiw, without the need for a central charge in the algebra. We show how
the Lagrange multipliersin these formulations appear naturally as the remnants
of the three dimensional connection associated to symmetries that have been
lostin the dimensional reduction. The proposed dimensional reduction involves a
shift in the three dimensional connection whose effect is to make the length of
the extra dimension infinite.
