The man who played a key role in bringing the Olympic Summer Games to Atlanta is coming to Utah.
Andrew Young, former mayor of Atlanta and former ambassador to the United Nations, currently serves as the co-chairman of the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games. He'll be in Utah on Monday as part of a conference on the Community Reinvestment Act sponsored by the Salt Lake Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and several local banks.Young will keynote the conference and a dinner Monday night with discussions about revitalizing urban cities. As part of Atlanta's successful Olympic bid, Young and others promised revitalization of inner-city areas.
A New York Times Article dated Oct. 9, 1994, confirms that many areas that were promised new life are getting it. But it cautions that some of the revitalization to blighted areas is yet to become as real as the imminent Summer Games in 1996.
Local NAACP president Jeanetta Williams said Young's success in bringing the Olympics to Atlanta is just one of the reasons he was chosen to keynote the conference.
Williams hopes Young will offer advice to local minorities about how to get more involved in Utah's bid for the 2002 Winter Olympics. She notes that the International Olympic Committee gives high marks for a city that embraces diversity.
"I think us working together (on the bid) will show more unity in our community," she said. Having some say in Utah's Olympic bid will also offer minority businesses the chance to network.
"It'll promote minority businesses," she said. "We want to be involved. And whatever happens, we want to make sure that whatever the Olympics may need they can look to us (the NAACP) as a liaison with the minority community."
The conference offers locals a chance to gain updated information about the Community Reinvestment Act and how it applies to local financial institutions. In addition to Young, Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, who sits on such Senate committees as Appropriations and Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, will speak at a luncheon Monday afternoon.
The conference will cover fair lending laws and advice to local banks on how to increase community services and programs, among other topics.
Williams hopes the conference offers minorities and financial institutions the chance to work through and avoid problems.
Those interested in attending can contact the NAACP office at 363-5771. The cost of the conference is $50, which includes the luncheon and workshops.