Posted on 08/01/2004 6:51:05 AM PDT by Hillarys Gate Cult
BOSTON -- Democratic National Convention delegates have departed, taking with them lots of goodwill and pleasant memories of Boston - but leaving behind few of the dollars promised by convention organizers, a Boston Sunday Globe survey found.
Among 572 delegates the newspaper surveyed Thursday and Friday at their hotels, the majority reported spending less than $500 during their stay here. Only a handful of those surveyed - 14 percent - said they spent more than $1,000 during their stay, not counting travel and lodging. Most said they ate out at least four times during convention week, aside from meals at their hotel or the FleetCenter, the convention site.
And there was little exploration of the city among those surveyed. More than half - 52 percent - never ventured into the city's neighborhoods. Of those that did, about one in four went to the North End, only a short distance from the FleetCenter.
Delegate Laura Boyd of Norman, Okla., said she knew many shopkeepers and restaurateurs were hurt.
"I worried about that because as I walked around I could see that there was no business," said Boyd, 55, who ran for governor six years ago. "I was concerned about that. As a small business owner, I'm thinking: I know you're hurting. I know you're not happy. But they never displayed that to the guests. And I really admired that."
An overwhelming majority in the survey found Boston friendly, clean, ethnically diverse and a place which nearly all would visit again.
Delegates reported being impressed with the enthusiastic neighborliness from subway workers, police officers, and shopkeepers. Even the street signs and directions were praised by seven in 10 of those questioned.
"It's just unbelievable," said Maria A. Santos Laboy, a New Jersey delegate. "So we wonder: Did they tell them to be nice to people? I think it's just natural. It's been great here."
Melvin Alston, 57, a delegate from Harlem in New York City, said his image of Boston was formed from news footage during Boston desegregation violence in the early 1970s.
"That bothered me a great deal, and I just had visions of going to Boston that were not good," Alston said. "But when I came here, there was warmth. We were walking through the streets, and somebody said, 'Can I help you?' Boston is really much different than I expected."
Clueless. What do you expect from the the party of the free lunch.
What? Spend their own money? That's preposterous.
But Wendy's profits are up by a couple of burglers...oops, I mean burgers.
Owl_Eagle
”Guns Before Butter.”
Which means he's been stupid and clueless for 34 years? Are all of his opinions formed day by day by news footage? Melvin sounds like the perfect RAT - Clueless on the RAT Plantation.
Less Kerry-ed away/Impulse Buy-clinton Buys $30,000 Worth of Diamonds
Wonder why the press hasn't asked Hillary how she likes those diamonds?
Gotta make sure we get that ethnics thing in there. Spoken like a true acolyte of the Left.
It sounds like none of them visited the historical (Revolutionary War) sites either.
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