In the intricacies of city planning, setting a vision for the future is the only way to step toward it. Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper laid the future-thinking ground work Tuesday night at DaVinci Institute’s “Night with a Futurist” as he spoke about police, city transit, education, water and a little bit of technology.

“I think we’re approaching a tipping point,” said Hickenlooper. “We’re reaching a point where our city is transitioning to the next level, where people are participating and actively engaging in civic activities and where the rest of nation is starting to take notice.”

While Hickenlooper pointed out specifics on where Denver should be heading, he said that Denver’s growth was as much in his hands as it was in the people’s.

“I think what we’ll find in ten years is that the most important thing is who is at the table and what ideas are they bringing to it,” said Hickenlooper.

Making Denver a tech hub wasn’t his most vocal point, but the former business leader did speak highly of its importance when a question was directed to the subject.

“We have pledged to develop and embrace it as much as possible,” said Hickenlooper.

“I’d very much like to see new technologies develop here,” he added as he spoke about an ankle bracelet that can read the BAC level of known alcoholics and then beam the results to a website.

The mayor pointed out that for the first time Denver has a chief information officer technology; Michael Locatis, a former high ranking executive at Time Warner Telecom, took over the position in February.

One of the biggest things that has changed from a technology standpoint, according to Hickenlooper, and will continue to evolve in such a way is internal IT centralization.

“We’ve moved to a tech shop set up,” said Hickenlooper. “Instead of each department ordering the software individually, we’re ordering it in bulk and getting a much bigger discount. The way we handle technology issues has also changed.”

On the subject of Wi-Fi hot spots, the mayor said that there are a lot but not enough, though he did not hint that Denver would be moving towards Philadelphia’s newly announced complete city coverage.

While Hickenlooper’s focus wasn’t on the information superhighway, it did focus on some of Denver's proposed "transportation superhighway". Hickenlooper has high hopes for FasTracks, the proposed plan that will bring 119 miles of new light rail and commuter rail to Denver and beyond for an estimated $4.7 billion.

“Mayor Federico Peña had a vision and saw it through on bringing an International Airport to Denver,” said Hickenlooper. “That had tremendous opposition but has moved us forward by leaps and bounds in bringing traffic to this city. I feel the same sort of positive growth will take place with FasTracks.”

For police, he wants more pride in Denver’s force and more community engagement. On water, perhaps a more integrated system.  Hickenlooper, like every Denverite, was high on the city’s quality of life. And that aspect is only increasing as major cultural moves are taking place.