BY MIMI WHITEFIELD

 For decades, the world has watched as Greater Miami weathered riots, hurricanes, cocaine cowboys, tourist murders, political scandals and waves of refugees.

 The Elian Gonzalez saga once again has turned the spotlight on Miami, and it hasn't been kind.

 Throngs in the streets, passionate emotions, civic turmoil, defiance of federal authority and armed federal agents seizing a frightened boy are not the images that reassure vacationers or business executives.

 With Elian awaiting his day in court, the question has become: Is this just another Miami moment that will pass as emotions cool or could it have a more profound impact on the city's reputation and business climate?

 ``Looking at this in business terms, this is a stock -- the Cuban-American community -- that is plummeting,'' said Tom Pirko, a New York business consultant. ``Business is based on stability and continuity and you don't want things to get crazy.''

 But local civic and business leaders have learned to roll with the punches.

 ``This community and this industry have survived and overcome other situations that may have been perceived as negatives in the past and moved on,'' said Stuart Blumberg, president of the Greater Miami and the Beaches Hotel Association. ``This is a very resilient community and industry that will take this one in stride and keep moving forward.''

 In fact, Blumberg said, the tourism industry is on its way to a banner year, with a record 10 million overnight visitors. In the early 1980s, when Miami was walloped with riots, a skyrocketing crime rate, and a massive refugee influx, overnight visitors bottomed out at about 5.4 million.

 In February -- well into the Elian custody battle -- the community had the second-highest hotel occupancy in the nation (82.8 percent), trailing only Hawaii, noted William Talbert, CEO of the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau. March and April, he said, also have been strong.

 ``I've been here for 30 years and we've had our up and downs, and we'll have them again,'' Talbert said. ``In any situation it looks real tough when you're in the middle of it.''

 While no company negotiating with the Beacon Council has put projects on hold, ``the turmoil and emotion [surrounding the custody battle] do give people pause,'' said Frank Nero, president of Miami-Dade's public/private economic development arm. ``It's another layer on image problems that we're already fighting desperately to overcome.

 ``Companies these days have so many choices,'' he said, ``and they're going to take the path of least resistance.''

 Outsiders generally agree.

 DENT TO IMAGE

 ``There's no doubt that the community has been hurt by this extraordinary emotional and political happening. There's been a serious dent in Miami's image,'' said Howard Rubenstein, whose New York public relations firm, Rubenstein & Associates, has worked with local tourism officials to burnish the area's image during past crises.

 ``I don't think one should look at it as long-term damage,'' he said. `The value we have in America is that you can protest. As long as it doesn't turn violent, people say `That's America.' ''

 Both Nero and Talbert have received what Nero refers to as ``hate e-mails'' during the Elian controversy. ``They run along the lines of `I wouldn't dream of coming to Miami.' All you can do is say ouch,'' said Nero.

 Nevertheless, the tourists are still coming.

 The Mann family from Youngstown, Ohio, was already at the airport packed for a week's vacation in South Florida when news that Elian had been seized hit the airwaves.

 They admit to being concerned but decided to come anyway. ``Really, there's been no impact. We've stayed away from the protest areas, and it's a big enough city we could find other things to do,'' said Nancy Mann. ``We hear it's still cold at home, so my daughter's really loving being able to swim every day.''

 Bertha Knowles, from West Warwick, R.I., was enjoying lunch Thursday on Lincoln Road. News of protests didn't deter her two-week vacation.

 ``I knew my son, who lives here, and his friends would take good care of me,'' she said. ``But my other kids were concerned about my coming. My daughter has called me every day.''

 Not only is Greater Miami being scrutinized by the rest of the world, the community's Cuban-American residents are also under the microscope.

 What the crowds around Elian's relatives' home in Little Havana saw as an outpouring of love for a child who lost his mother in a quest for freedom is perceived quite differently in cities across America.

 ``What most Americans saw was a clear-cut case of a motherless child who should be returned to his father, and what they saw from Miami was that the fight against Castro comes first. That's backward for a lot of people,'' said Phil Peters, a fellow at the Lexington Institute, a free-market think tank in suburban Washington, D.C.

 'MOB RULE'

 At one point during the standoff, The New York Times editorialized: ``The relatives, and the hundreds of supporters who daily encircle the great uncle's home to shield the boy, make it look as if South Florida's Cuban-Americans believe in mob rule. Miami is the loser in this spectacle.''

 ``Mostly people here think it's ridiculous and a function of fanatical Cuban Americans in Miami who have little tolerance for dissent,'' said Wendy Kaminer, a fellow at the Radcliffe Public Policy Institute in Cambridge, Mass.

 ``What I sense is a certain impatience about the whole thing -- especially among those with any knowledge of immigration law. Given the horrific way most immigration cases are treated, it's hard to get worked up about reuniting a child with a father who apparently loves him,'' she said.

 Damian Fernandez, chairman of the international relations department at Florida International University, pointed out there are 750,000 Cuban Americans in the Greater Miami area, and they all shouldn't be painted with the same brush stroke.

 ``In spite of the passion that's been generated, for the most part the demonstrations have been quite civil,'' said Fernandez. ``Yet the national media continues to harp on the issue of Miami as a no man's land, an appendage to the United States that should be cut off.''

 FACE (Facts About Cuban Exiles), a nonprofit organization whose goal is to present an accurate picture of Cuban Americans, is trying to change that image.

 This week the group discussed how Cuban Americans' image has suffered during the Elian controversy. The consensus: the Cuban-American message about Elian and Cuban Americans in general have been misunderstood by mainstream America.

 ``We all realized we need focus, continuity, the right strategy and quite a bit of money'' to counteract the negative images, said Adolfo Henriques, Union Planters Bank president and FACE chairman-elect.

                     Copyright 2000 Miami Herald