N.Y. and New Orleans Seek Convention : Democrats: Cleveland and Houston out of running. Decision ‘still wide-open.’

New York--”The Big Apple”--and New Orleans--”The Big Easy”--beat out Cleveland and Houston today as the field for the 1992 Democratic presidential nominating convention was narrowed down to two cities.

The party’s site selection committee, getting a jump on Republicans who have just started their convention selection process, picked the Northern and Southern cities with the winner to be selected next month by party Chairman Ron Brown.

At a meeting, the committee said all four cities made impressive presentations. Officials said that Cleveland, however, did not have enough first-class hotel rooms available for the thousands of delegates, press and visitors.

A handicap in Houston was that only a few days were open to the Democrats at its Astrodome to avoid a conflict with the Houston Astros major league baseball team, which plays its home games there.

Brown denied reports from New Orleans that the choice to hold the convention in that “Big Easy” city of jazz and easy living had been decided or that New York had the edge.

“It’s a wide-open decision,” he said and added that he will visit both soon before making his final choice in June.

He expressed confidence that both New York, which last held Democratic conventions in 1976 and 1980, and New Orleans, where Republicans nominated then-Vice President George Bush for the presidency in 1988, could come up with $15 million the Democrats want to host the parley.

But he said that it would take hard negotiations with both cities on the matter of finances, logistics and other matters.

Brown said he would decide in June “so we can get on with the planning for the best convention we’ve ever had.”

Democrats have won only one presidential election since Lyndon B. Johnson’s victory in 1964--Jimmy Carter’s victory in 1976. Republicans have won five over that period.

So far there are no announced presidential candidates.