John Hickenlooper: Another GIS Visionary at the Helm of City Government

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In 2005, Time Magazine named John Hickenlooper one of the top five large city mayors in the United States. It is easy to see why from the vision he espouses in using GIS to manage city government, an endeavor he admits is a fundamentally geographic phenomenon. Presenting at the ESRI Senior Executive Seminar yesterday, [Denver Colorado Mayor] Hickelooper landed in government to find the proverbial islands of automation. He promptly hired a CIO, and proceded to create an enterprisewide geospatial database from which the islands became what he calls "centralized/de-centralized" or a means whereby city departments, responsible for their own needs, can share a central data store of geographic information. I had a chance to speak with Hickenlooper who admitted that it was easier for him to work with the various departments to deliver his vision because as a self-described "recovering geologist" they new of his appreciation for mapping technology. I asked him if he saw other mayors who understood the potential of managing a city with GIS and his unfortunate reply was that there weren't many who did. Luckily there are a few like Hickenlooper who "get it" as their city's will reap the benefits from a geospatial visionary.