MetroPlan drops blog
after critics attack agency's plans
September 25, 2005

What do you do if you set up an Internet Web blog and only your critics post things on it?
MetroPlan Orlando decided last week to pull the plug.
The regional transportation-planning agency, run mostly by elected officials in Orange, Seminole and Osceola counties, such as Orange County Mayor Rich Crotty and Seminole County Commissioner Randy Morris, set up a blog in mid-August to give the public another forum to talk about transportation projects and priorities.
But in the first weeks, many of the public's blog postings came from Ax the Tax Chairman Doug Guetzloe and his political allies, such as anti-toll roads activist Sally Baptiste.
They've been loud critics not just of many recent transportation policies, but of the politicians behind them, including Crotty. Lately they've been attacking plans for a Central Florida commuter train supported by MetroPlan, and they took the attacks to the MetroPlan blog.
By last week, Crotty and Morris, who is chairman of MetroPlan, had seen enough. At a Sept. 14 meeting, they and other members of the MetroPlan executive committee fretted about misinformation and personal attacks on the blog, concluding it wasn't worth the hassle or the possible legal problems some of the postings could create.
The next day the blog was shut down.