PLANO: CITY STRUGGLES WITH ITS IMAGE FOLLOWING NATIONAL MEDIA COVERAGE

PLANO - Last year, as a wave of heroin deaths among young people here began
to make headlines, Police Chief Bruce Glasscock and other city leaders met
to plot strategy.

"It was our belief we needed to be right up front and confront this issue
head on," he says. "One of the key pieces is making sure the community is
aware. We agreed we needed to be as open with the media as we could."

The result, the chief says, has been "a double-edged sword."

As Plano scrambles to deal with the drug problem, there's no problem with
public awareness. On the other hand, "Plano" and "heroin" are becoming
linked into a national media cliche, like "strife-torn Northern Ireland"
and "Oklahoma City bombing."

"It's embarrassing," says Lori Wilcox, a preschool teacher in Plano. "All
of a sudden we've become the drug capital of the country, and I don't
believe that's right. My nephew e-mailed us recently, saying, 'I hear it's
easy to get heroin where you live.' "

The police chief says he, Mayor John Longstreet and others "were really
hoping the focus was on our local media market. I don't think any of us
anticipated the national attention that the issue would bring."

But name a media outlet - from Dateline NBC to The New York Times to
America Online to Esquire - and Plano's drug deaths have been featured. The
latest installment in the publicity blitz hits MTV Tuesday night in a
half-hour news special.

Many of these stories have the same themes: upscale American paradise on
the surface - with a seamy underside. Are kids so pampered that they're
bored? Are parents so busy conquering the world that they don't notice
what's happening at home?

Ms. Wilcox says she resents the emphasis on Plano's affluence, and the
implication that it's causing drug problems.

"I just can't believe there are more kids using drugs here than in Dallas
or Philadelphia or anywhere else," she says. "Any community you live in,
they're going to find a way to get drugs."

Dave Irwin, a manager at Nortel, agrees the problem is hardly limited to
Plano. "But it shows you money doesn't let you buy your way out of a
problem," he says. "You can't say you're embarrassed [by the publicity].
It's just real sad."

Mary Beth King, vice president of the Plano school board, believes that the
city's achievements, such as rapid growth and highly regarded schools,
could be causing a backlash.

"Maybe there's some part of the public that sees a city that's successful
and maybe they want to find a flaw," she says.

Tuesday night, MTV's special from Plano opens with a headline that 17
people have died from heroin overdoses in the last couple of years, but
generally avoids analysis or sociological conclusions about the city.

Instead, the program focuses on disturbing scenes of young people snorting
and injecting drugs, as well as interviews with family and friends of
victims. It concludes with a number for people throughout the country to
call for help: Narcotics Anonymous, (818) 773-9999.

True to his word, Chief Glasscock faces the MTV cameras as well.

"I think the community is kind of getting tired of all the attention," he
says. "And you get to a certain point where you get tired of repeating the
same stories. But this problem has been around for years, and this problem
has been ignored. We made a decision to go out front."

A familiar road

It's a road Plano has been down before. In the early 1980s, a spate of teen
suicides drew similar national scrutiny that nobody particularly wanted.

"When I travel around the country, I still hear, 'Oh, Plano, that's the
city that had all the suicides,' " Chief Glasscock says. "That's the image
that has been left with a lot of people."

The publicity, says Ms. King, helped motivate the city to learn from the
tragedies.

"I think people were upset about [the image]," she says. "They felt it
didn't really show the true Plano, and people wanted to prove them wrong."

Ms. King says the counseling and suicide prevention programs developed here
have become models for schools around the country.

"We've moved on and we've grown and become a better community by addressing
these things," she says. "We're a can-do community. We face whatever comes
and deal with it."

No one doubts that upbeat attitude will be tested again. The Rev. Phil
Mercer, pastor of Plano's First United Methodist Church, says his relatives
in Indiana have followed the Plano story.

"They say they saw us on TV and boy, they wouldn't want to move here," he says.

He doesn't think that's a fair assessment of a city he loves.

"We're kind of in a glass palace here because Plano is recognized as an
all-American city," Mr. Mercer says. "The expectation level is extremely
high here, so when those in focus stumble, it makes news."

But the pastor also doesn't think the publicity is necessarily bad.

"One of the things we all want to work on is parental denial," he says.
"None of us have done as well leading as we have been reactive."

'Wake-up call'

Seeing the city spotlighted in national media, not just local newspapers
and TV "is a wake-up call," Mr. Mercer says. "Tragedy is never good because
of the lives involved. But I hope this has awakened every sensitive adult.
Even though we're not that much different than anyplace else, we've got
some work to do."

Before he moved here from Santa Fe, N.M., in December, Bob Morrow actually
doubted the problems were as bad as he'd read and seen in the media.

"At first I thought these were small, isolated incidents that were blown
out of proportion," says Mr. Morrow, an attorney and writer. "We thought
the media was exaggerating. Now that I'm here, I think it's more widespread
than we thought."

At the same time, Mr. Morrow says he and his wife love their new home, are
delighted by the school their two boys attend and applaud the city's
leaders for facing up to the problem.

"Maybe Plano is taking a hit because the powers that be are talking about
it," he says. "But we need to address this as a city."

Ms. Wilcox, whose daughters are 12 and 14, agrees. "I'm not happy they've
spotlighted Plano, but I'm glad they're bringing it to our attention," she
says.

"Do I think there's a drug problem in Plano? You bet. Am I glad they told
me about it? You better believe it."

Chief Glasscock says not every city would tackle the subject so forthrightly.

"I've received calls from my peers from around the country who said, 'How
did you do that? How did you get your community to step up to the plate and
face a problem that could cast a poor light on the community?' "

Frustration

He says he was frustrated that some stories and articles focused too much
on Plano, rather than stressing that the resurgence of heroin is a national
problem. He also wasn't crazy about the occasional tendency to show huge
mansions as representative of the city.

"But I think for the most part the reporting was pretty fair and pretty
balanced," he says. He hasn't seen the MTV show yet, but there are no
regrets.

"If we're able to get another community to start thinking about the problem
and if there's another kid who becomes more aware of the risk of drug use,
it was well worth it," he says.