I had the pleasure of visiting Dublin, Ohio again last month to speak at the Smart Cities Workshop produced by the ICF Institute there. Led by Doug McCollough (pictured right), the Institute is Dublin’s contribution to the development of central Ohio and the entire state based on ICF’s Community Accelerator Strategy.

After the hard years of pandemic, the Dublin Institute returned to its regular programming on September 29 for the Intelligent Communities and aspiring cities and regions in central Ohio. It was once called the Rust Belt, but the middle of this American state has become an innovation engine in both business and government. 

In June, city manager Dana McDaniel retired from his long-time leadership position with the city of Dublin, Ohio. Dana founded the ICF Global Institute at Dublin in 2016 as an educational initiative for community leaders throughout central Ohio. Within a few years, it was instrumental in the rise of a cluster of Intelligent Communities in the region, including the cities of Defiance, Fairlawn, Hilliard, Hudson, Westerville and Columbus.

Last week 192 nations were in New York sorting through the world’s problems, while I was trying to sort through the traffic jams they were creating in my world: the streets of New York. When the peacemakers come to town, blessed though they may be, our traffic gets miserable. However, as the home of the United Nations, we live with the hope that we are hosting people who will make the world safer and happier – or at least happier than my taxi driver.

But for the record, 85% of my trips around the city were via public transit. Blessed be IT! Let us have more of it.