Be it a justified way to air African-Americans' grievances against Cincinnati or a misguided attempt to punish innocent downtown businesses, the success of the Black United Front-led holiday boycott depends on whom you ask. But quantifying its financial impact is virtually impossible.

        Some Cincinnati residents downtown on Sunday said the boycott — which began Nov. 24 and ended last week on the last day of Kwanzaa — was important in bringing public discussion to injustices such as police misconduct and racially motivated restaurant closings during the 2000 Ujima festival.

        Others felt the boycott might be counterproductive, because it targeted downtown businesses in the name of the two black men who died recently in police custody, when the businesses had nothing to do with it.

        “They tie in because many of the people are looking at the race issue in the city,“ said Abdur Rahim, 57, of Madisonville, an African-American man who was working at the skating rink on Fountain Square.

        “I've been here since '68, and I've never heard of a white person being killed by police,” Mr. Rahim said. “We're as much a part of this society was anyone.”

        But he cautioned that the boycott's long-term impact is hard to judge.

        The nation's retailers last week reported razor-thin sales margins or sales declines during the 2000 holiday shopping season, and that included discount chains as well as luxury retailers like Saks Fifth Avenue.

        Nadia Gray, 23, of Bond Hill, who also is African-American, said of the boycott: “I feel they were just being petty, light-weight petty. It didn't stop me from coming downtown.”

        Either way, boycott organizer the Rev. Damon Lynch IIIis undeterred.

        “The evidence we have is that it was a success,“ he said Sunday. “People noticed a lot fewer people downtown, but the whole season was a bust for retailers. ... Downtown is the heart of our city. Those were the two levels, financial and symbolic, to get people to shop at (black-owned) Swifton Commons, and then also to point out the injustices this year in Cincinnati.”

        David Ginsburg, executive vice president of Downtown Cin cinnati Inc., the downtown advocacy group, responded: “It's very unfortunate that anyone feels that the situation is such that they'd want to boycott downtown. We work hard to make sure downtown is per ceived as everyone's neighborhood.”

        While that's why critics say the boycott should not have been held downtown, supporters say that's why it was.

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