Metro has decided to go on offense and Rad Sallee has the details:
Metro’s board heard a staff report Thursday on the agency’s new “Communication, Education and Awareness Plan,” days before a crucial public meeting on a proposed University light rail line.
CEAP. Hmmm. Metro should get with Chief Hurtt for a better acronym.
President and CEO Frank Wilson added, “We need to do status reports and updates, so people will know where we are.” He said there is “extreme interest from the community” about Metro’s plans — particularly for the University line — along with “a lot of misinformation and a lot of fear.”
[snip]
Karen Marshall, Metro director of community outreach and government affairs, said the increased public information efforts include ads in news media and an enhanced Web site.
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Metro’s enhanced Web page includes a link to an article in Houston Intown Magazine headlined “Why the Richmond Rail Line Makes Sense,” by planner and “smart growth” advocate David Crossley.
Wilson said the page will also include testimonials from business people who weathered the years of light rail construction on Main Street and are now benefiting from the line.
Asked if it would only post material favorable to Metro’s plans, Wilson said he would post anything “pertinent and germane.”
“It’s an open forum,” he said. “I can learn something from a criticism as well as I can a compliment.”
Asked about using tax dollars to advertise its programs, he said, “We’re not advertising the program. We’re providing information.”
Oh right! Just some info. If Metro really wants to provide information, it would start posting all Danger Train crash details on its website. You know, the details Tom Bazan has to do an open records request to get. (Funny how the Chronicle didn’t make that a part of its Sunshine Week coverage.)
We won’t hold our breath for any links to criticism.
