U.S. OLYMPIC FESTIVAL LOS ANGELES 1991 : Athletes Find L.A. Is Real Life : Impressions: People came here expecting to find a movie set but instead discovered that the city has its share of problems.

The bus taking some baseball players to the Olympic Festival opening ceremony was almost to Dodger Stadium when Jason Phillips and Jamel Washington heard a shot. The bus driver screamed at the athletes to hit the floor.

So Phillips and Washington stood up.

“We wanted to see what was going on,” Phillips said.

A liquor store had been shot up, and Phillips saw a man holding his shoulder and running down the street. The bus driver drove away from the scene and pulled over to wait for the police to arrive. They thought the bus might have been hit.

“We waited a long time for that cop to come, about 20 minutes or so,” Washington said.

“Some of the guys were a little frightened, but I see stuff like that all the time. I’m from the Bronx.”

Phillips, though, had never even come close to this type of experience. He lives in Hughesville, Pa.--population 200.

“I’ve only heard about this stuff on TV and in the movies,” he said.

While most of the 3,000 athletes attending the Festival have praised the event facilities as being of Olympic caliber, they would also agree that the luster that surrounded Los Angeles during the 1984 Olympics has dulled. Then, the crime rate dropped dramatically in some of the city’s toughest neighborhoods, a result of Angelenos being focused on a major event, police officials say.

Such was not the case during the Festival, to which Phillips can further attest.

A few days after the bus incident, he went to visit his parents, who were staying at the University Hilton across the street from USC, where the baseball competition was being held.

“So my parents and I are just talking and we hear automatic gunfire go off,” Phillips said. “We ran out on the street and saw the empty shell cases, and the police frisking some guys down by the red light (on the corner of Figueroa and Exposition). They ended up letting the guys go.”

This was not the type of memory Festival officials had in mind.

“We brought the video camera out with us and taped the whole thing,” Phillips said.

Phillips is one of hundreds of athletes being housed at USC, where they have been warned not to leave campus because of crime and gang violence. Athletes are also staying at UCLA and Loyola Marymount University, which are also event sites. But a lack of transportation has limited athletes from seeing very much of Los Angeles.

“The Festival is not as much fun as I thought it was going to be,” said Kathy Carboy, an 18-year old diver from Cincinnati staying at USC. “There is no transportation to other venues and we are kind of stuck in our dorm rooms.”

Athletes were told they could venture north from USC to the University Village Shopping Center, but to not go off campus in any other direction, which would include the area of the California Museum of Science and Industry, the IMAX Theater and Coliseum.

“They told us not to go off campus, and if we do to go in groups and to have boys in the group,” said Cheril Santini, a diver from Dallas. “So I really haven’t seen much because there is no way to get out. But I’m having fun, so it’s no big deal.”

Several athletes and officials from various sports said this is the first Festival that hasn’t provided shuttle service between venues and some type of transportation for other activities.

“I’ve got friends in other sports I would like to go see, but this is the first Festival that I haven’t been able to get there,” said archer Jay Barrs, who is staying at UCLA.

“We all wanted to go to Disneyland, so we (the archers) each pitched in $6 apiece, rented a van and crammed 21 people into a 12-passenger van. Our team manager drove and I must say, he did a fine job.”

Barrs also has enjoyed walking to Westwood Village, where he bought a pair of silk pants Thursday night. “The prices are high here, but these pants were on sale,” he said.

But athletes staying at UCLA have also received warnings. They were told to stay in groups of four or five when wandering around Westwood and to not jog alone on campus.

Friday night they were told not to go into the village at all. “Boyz-N-The-Hood,” a movie about gangs, was debuting at a Westwood theater and officials were concerned about possible gang violence.

“So we locked ourselves in our rooms and aimed our bows at the door,” Barrs said.

If the athletes have ventured anywhere, it’s been to Disneyland, which offered free admission to participants for the length of the Festival. The problem, however, was for the athletes to find a way to get there.

“We knew up front that if we wanted to provide opportunities for our athletes above and beyond their participation in the Festival, we had to arrange for them and pay for them,” said George Sykes, commissioner of baseball for the Festival.

So Sykes got busy. After arriving here from Memphis, he arranged transportation to an Angel game, to Dodger Stadium for team pictures and practice and to Disneyland.

The Dodgers paid for the transportation to the stadium, the Angels donated free tickets to the game and players and baseball officials split the remaining cost, about $6 each.

But the divers haven’t been that fortunate.

“I took a couple of divers up to the (downtown) Hilton for a press conference, and they were glad to get off campus,” said Dave Shatkowski, press officer for diving.

A couple miles north of USC is the downtown Hilton, the main press center for the Festival. Most of the out-of-town reporters are staying there, as are officials from the U.S. Olympic Committee and press officers brought in to coordinate media for the various sports.

Bordering Wilshire and 7th Street on Figueroa, the Hilton is situated in one of the cleanest and most active areas in downtown Los Angeles.

Across the street from the Hilton is the newly renovated Home Savings and Loan and Shearson-Lehman Hutton building, sparkling with gold and marble inlays and painted murals on the ceiling of the outdoor foray. Just south is Seventh Market Place, an upscale shopping galleria that includes Bullocks and many eateries.

Still, a shooting that occurred two blocks away from the Hilton on the night of the Festival’s opening ceremony prompted officials to warn guests not to jog or walk alone at night.

“I’ve always been amazed when I go to Mexico of how close the rich live to the poor, and that’s how it is here,” said Pat Murphy-Racey, a photographer from Knoxville, Tenn., who stayed at the Hilton.

“USC is virtually an island with palm trees and a bookstore pulling in about $2 million a day. And right across the street it’s Watts. Well, I know about Watts, and now I have been there.

“I would hate to be a security guard at USC, because you would have one student complaining about his BMW that had been ticketed, while you have a gang member walking through campus at the same time.”

It was the first time Murphy-Racey had been to Los Angeles. He said his impression of Southern California began soon after he passed Palm Springs on Interstate 10.

“I thought the entire area was blanketed by fog, but it was smog,” he said. “The air is so dirty here. And the killer freeways, I’ve been on all of them this week. I would not want to live here, because I would not want to die with memories of my dashboard.”

Murphy-Racey participated in a sports photography workshop, which works in conjunction with the USOC, so he spent most of his time at events or traveling to them.

“I don’t know why they call them freeways,” said Jeff Cravens, a USOC press officer, “nothing about them is free.”

Chris LeBeau, Jessica Mills’ figure skating coach, zipped around the city in a rented convertible. She loved the beaches and shopping, but the “hugeness” of the city frightened her. “In New York, you stay on the island and you pretty much know where it is safe to go,” said LeBeau, who lives in Chicago. “But here, it is so big and with the gangs and all, you’re never quite sure where it’s safe to drive.”

One of the complaints of reporters was that Los Angeles restaurants close down so early, so a local reporter suggested Gorky’s Cafe--on 8th and San Julian Street--which serves meals until 2:30 a.m. To locals, Gorky’s is a traditional late-night spot. But to people from smaller cities, perhaps it wasn’t a good suggestion.

As the group turned their car into the dirt parking lot across from Gorky’s, a couple of men approached it and begin to wash the windows. The reporters were a little frightened at first, then realized that the men had their hands out to be paid for it.

It happens in New York all the time.

Discounting the smog, the crime, the traffic and the high prices of parking and lack of it, some say they really have enjoyed themselves here.

Jason Phillips said that he and his parents drove to Mt. Wilson one afternoon and loved it. “It’s so beautiful there, similar to where I live,” he said.

Some press officers have also made the time to see the city and have really enjoyed it.

“We have a pool of cars to draw on,” said Craig Smith, a press officer from Easton, Pa., who has been responsible for the shooting and archery venues.

“I’ve had a great time and I love Los Angeles. I’ve been from Chino (for shooting) to Redondo Beach to Encino. I’ve gone to Disneyland and to Alice’s Restaurant in Malibu. Tonight I’m going shopping at the Galleria. It’s been a ball.”

Neal Farmer, here to cover the Festival for the Houston Chronicle, recounted what he believes will be a lasting impression of Los Angeles. A friend of his was invited to what he believed was to be a rap party, but when he arrived he was confused by the absence of rap music as well as the type of people he thought would be there.

After a while, he figured it out. He was at a wrap party. As in movie production.

That, too, is L.A.

Times staff writers Elliott Almond and Julie Cart contributed to this story.