Business is 'awful' during Salt Lake Games

Business is so bad for merchants in the heart of Salt Lake City during the 2002 Winter Games that the mayor held a news conference on Wednesday to encourage more people to come downtown.

Mayor Rocky Anderson exhorted citizens to venture into the downtown core -- for Olympic medals ceremonies and concerts, sporting events and cultural offerings -- after business people complained that foot traffic is down an estimated 30 percent compared to last February.

"We had businesses that came to us and said we're not seeing the patronage that we had before the Olympics," said Joshua Ewing, a spokesman for Anderson who summarized the mayor's comments.

"The bottom line is that people in surrounding areas for some reason have this belief that it's incredibly hard to get downtown and it'll be real crowded," Ewing said. The mayor countered this perception by urging people to use public transport.

The Olympics have been anything but a business boon, according to Tom Guinney, a partner in the Gastronomy Inc. restaurant group and a board member of the Utah Restaurant Association.

"Salt Lake City is experiencing probably 30 percent of the anticipated foot traffic that we were hoping for," Guinney said in a telephone interview. "It's bad. It's bad. It's awful in the core of our city."

He said the Salt Lake Organizing Committee for the Olympics (SLOC) and Utah transit officials have been so concerned with getting athletes and officials to Olympic events securely and on time that they have depressed traffic in the center of the city.

STREETS ARE 'EMPTY'

"What the mayor couldn't say at the press conference is that our streets are significantly less impacted in Salt Lake City than they normally are ... which is another way of saying they're empty," Guinney said.

Asked about this at a news conference, SLOC spokeswoman Caroline Shaw said, "As one who lives and works in the downtown area, I'm certainly no one to disagree with the mayor, but I've seen an increase in people who have been out and about in the city."

Even when the downtown streets are thronged with people, as they are most evenings for Olympic medals ceremonies and concerts, many businesses that have stayed open late to capitalize on the crowds appear nearly empty.

Guinney said restaurant business is off about 45 percent, and other businesses are also feeling the pinch. Pharmacies and dry cleaners said their downtown traffic is off and doctors reported patients were cancelling appointments in the downtown area.

Guinney said he expected this to happen, and said Atlanta and Los Angeles, which hosted Summer Olympic Games in 1996 and 1984 respectively, reported similar decreases in business.

"I wouldn't be surprised if lost business to restaurants and clubs amounted to $20 million," he said.

Richard Wirick of the Oxford Shop shoestore disagreed. A spokesman for the Downtown Merchants Association, which has about two dozen active members, Wirick said business has been good during the games.

"I'm really, really lucky," Wirick said by telephone. "The only reason that (merchants) might not do too well is they (organizers) scared people away, saying the traffic would be so bad."

He said organizers also suggested that downtown businesses close at mid-afternoon to cut down on traffic, a suggestion he ignored. Instead, Wirick said, he stays open late most evenings "to take advantage of the 50,000 people in downtown."