Atlantans Feel Convention Afterglow

There are a lot of restaurant and bar owners who did not get nearly the business they had expected, and city officials are still red-faced over the embarrassing lock-out of delegates and VIPs at the overcrowded convention hall.

Yet, all in all, Atlantans feel that their city gained far more than it lost in its gamble as host of the Democratic National Convention last week, and put itself on display to the world. The news coverage was overwhelmingly favorable; demonstrators gave the city no serious trouble; even the Democrats themselves helped out with a show of party unity unparalleled in recent years.

City’s Image Enhanced

“The convention enhanced what is our single most important asset, our image,” Michael Lomax, chairman of Atlanta’s County Commission, said.

“We were viewed as a ‘can-do’ town that reached beyond its grasp and didn’t fall on its face. People went away from here saying Atlanta’s a cooperative town, a biracial town, a town that’s on the go.”

The city had gone all out to put its best foot forward, sprucing up the downtown streets and parks, sending more than 1,000 taxi drivers to etiquette school, clearing homeless people away from the convention site and setting up an official location to contain demonstrations.

No one here rested easy, though, until the curtain fell on the convention last Thursday.

Most gratifying, Atlantans said, was their treatment by the news media--especially the morning network television shows, which were broadcast live from Atlanta during the convention and included upbeat features on the city’s various attractions and personalities.

“If we had tried to buy that kind of air time, we could not have afforded it, even though we operate on a $9-million-a-year budget,” said Ted Sprague, head of the Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau.

The convention’s boost to Atlanta’s image is expected to be particularly valuable in luring new investment to the ever-growing metropolitan area and in enhancing the city’s bid for the 1996 Olympic Games.

State tourism officials also were expecting big gains due to the interest generated by the convention.

“Travel industry people are familiar with New York and Florida, but the space in between is often a void to them,” said Barbara Saunders of the Georgia tourism office. “This convention has helped to show the world where we are and what we are, and will keep Atlanta and Georgia on their mind.”

Not everyone here was so ecstatic over the convention. Atlanta’s restaurants and bars, for example, suffered from a paucity of trade at the dinner hour, owing to the hours during which the Democrats met for business.

The Too-Small Hall

City and party officials also were still discomfited over the most glaring glitch of the whole proceeding--the shutting out of many delegates, honored guests and journalists as the convention hall, the Omni Coliseum, filled to capacity and fire marshals ordered it closed because of safety concerns.

But Sprague of the city’s convention bureau said there may be a silver lining even in that circumstance: It may prove to be the best argument yet for the $160-million, 72,000-seat stadium proposed for a site next to the Omni.

“We’re now in the final stages of putting a whole financial package together for the stadium, and this may be the thing that puts it over the top,” he said. “I’m not glad people were turned away, but it may work in our favor.”