I also think some people supporting the different positions had and have talking points and were coached, true, and some not, whether by a tax payer funded PR firm and tax payer paid staff, subsidized land speculators or developers, or politicos, not just one "side" or the other.
Gary Slagel as Mayor of Richardson should not use the mayoral position and meetings to call citizen concerns "political noise." His remarks "fly in the face" (his phrase) of being a mayor more people can look up to no matter where they are on a particular issue.
