Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, April 14, 1994                   TAG: 9404140329
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: By LON WAGNER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

IT'S ABOUT TIME, HE SAYS, TO INTEGRATE THE MONEY

Former Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young balked when asked if there's a better way to involve minority contractors in major construction projects than to set them up as "paper pushers."

He reeled off a long list of Atlanta's accomplishments: 25 percent of the airport built with minority contractors, 40 percent of everything done for the 1996 summer Olympics will be built by minority contractors.

"We insisted that they couldn't be paper-pushing jobs," Young said Wednesday while he was in Roanoke for a leadership program sponsored by the Roanoke Regional Chamber of Commerce. "If you're going to get 20 percent of the money, you have to do 20 percent of the work."

Young, mayor of Atlanta during the 1980s, was to meet with Roanoke leaders to discuss the leadership role business should take in community programs. Young was an aide to civil rights leader Martin Luther King, served three terms in Congress, and recently has been a driving force in bringing the Olympic games to Atlanta.

At a news conference at Roanoke Regional Airport, Young presented an upbeat forecast for minorities in American society, though he admitted some areas -including the business world - have yet to include minorities fully.

He said that compared to many parts of the world - for instance, the former Yugoslavia - ethnic relations in the United States are good. But while Americans did fairly well in integrating schools and governments, progress has moved more slowly in the financial sector.

"Right now," he said, "we're at a stage where we need to find a way to integrate the money."

Baltimore couldn't find any minority-owned construction companies when it wanted to begin building its Inner Harbor, so it created some, Young said.

"Some of them stayed in business; some of them went bankrupt," he said. "Some companies could go on to renovate housing after they finish the job."

Young said Roanoke and other Southern cities stand to benefit from Atlanta's successful Olympic bid. Just as Americans know London, but few other cities in Britain, the international community until now has known the United States only as New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Washington, he said.

"You think people don't know where Roanoke is - they don't know where Atlanta is, either," he said. "It's an opportunity for people to understand the life-style we have in the Southeast, and I think we'll see a business boom because of it."