ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, July 19, 1996 TAG: 9607190056
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: ATLANTA
LACK OF PARKING, snarled traffic and "visual clutter" may be enough to give those who attend the Games an Olympic-sized headache.
They said the world was coming to Atlanta. I didn't think they meant it literally.
Where are they going to put all of these people at the Summer Games? Savannah? Sparta? Spartanburg, S.C.?
The Centennial Games don't begin until tonight's opening ceremonies, but on the eve of the games, gridlock and gouging were Olympic sports.
The downtown streets were teeming with people, trying to figure out how to get from here to there. It's planning, and the best Olympics visitors will do some of that.
As the commercial says, they don't take American Express at the Atlanta Games, but it isn't a sponsoring credit card that will get you through a trip to Georgia's capital city during the next 16 days.
What you need most is patience.
Fortunately for fans, they won't have to go through Olympics accreditation, like the athletes, officials and media. That only has taken some of us three hours.
The fears about snarled traffic didn't materialize the last two days before the Games, except in downtown in what is called the Olympic Ring, home to most venues.
Much of that traffic will be alleviated today, when only cars with official reasons for being within the Ring will drive into town.
Those mostly lurching a few feet at a time Thursday were trying to find parking. Well, there's very little. What was available Thursday was going for $10 - an hour.
Most downtown lots in Atlanta have been taken over by street vendors and festival tents.
The vendors - the official Olympics word is ``kiosks,'' although calling some of these temporary structures that is being nice - already have drawn the ire of the International Olympic Committee.
IOC Vice President Dick Pound of Canada found a somewhat diplomatic way to call the Atlanta committee-approved stands junky.
He called them ``visual clutter.''
Those Canadians are so nice. Virtually every empty parking lot is a monument to tacky. In the capital of the New South, capitalism and commercialism run amok.
There are hotel rooms available because of cancellations, and tickets are readily available, unless you're looking for medal rounds in the glamour sports.
And you don't have to deal with scalpers for those seats. Tickets were on sale Thursday at a booth in Centennial Olympic Park, although a salesperson at the site said there were few questions about the ducats let for tonight's opening ceremonies.
``They're $636 apiece,'' she said.
That may sound steep, but no more so than some visitors will find to park their cars at the lots with access to the mode of transportation Olympics officials want you to take.
That's MARTA. The trains were already very crowded Wednesday and Thursday, but not as jammed as the free parking lots adjacent to the system's stations.
The Atlanta Games officials are encouraging visitors and business commuters to the Olympic Ring to park and ride. That's a wonderful concept, but by 7 a.m. Thursday, the lot at the Dunwoody station already was packed.
It was filled by those headed downtown to work. What are Olympics visitors to do? Well, they can pay to park in private lots near the MARTA stations. Near Leonx Square mall Thursday, a space in one of those makeshift lots was going for $40.
Not only are the MARTA trains bulging during peak hours, but even on Wednesday, the bus system was strained when Olympics volunteers began heading to a dress rehearsal for the opening ceremonies at the Olympic Stadium.
Then, when some of them got there with invitations in hand, they learned there were no tickets.
Of course, there could be a complete meltdown before the Games are a few days old. The heat index surpassed 100 degrees Thursday, and the lowest predicted high temperature through Monday is 94.
As for the security concerns in the wake of Wednesday's explosion of TWA Flight 800 off Long Island, the Atlanta Games seem more than prepared.
In two days, a reporter's briefcase was searched five times. There seem to be two policemen or security personnel on every other corner. In a five-block walk from the Main Press Center to the International Broadcast Center Thursday, I passed police on foot, horseback and motorcycle.
The best suggestion if you're coming to Atlanta?
Get where you need to be very early, then be prepared to wait in the heat. Atlanta has seen the World Series and the Super Bowl, but this is a different ballgame.
One way or another, it figures to be a hot time.
LENGTH: Medium: 98 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. 1. This aerial view shows Olympic Stadium in theby CNBforeground, Atlanta's Fulton County Stadium and downtown Atlanta. 2.
A fan prepares to take a photograph while the U.S. Olympic team is
announced during welcoming
ceremonies Thursday. color.