Yesterday Per and I took Mrs. Martin to a brownfield site in Youngstown, Ohio. We broke down in downtown before we got to the river where the brown sites turning green sit. We met folk wanting to help us in an all American way. Love Youngstown. While Per worked on points, coil and plugs I spoke to John Cox. What a man. He works for the Department of Streets. Loves his town – born there. When John saw the Hudson give out in an intersection and me pushing Per to the curb he came and shouldered our burden by putting his muscle into the effort. We got into it about rebuilding America. So too did his friend, the coolest police officer I’ve ever met – red hair up in a bun, pink watch and pistol on her hip. Then, another police officer and a street sweeper driver and Stephanie a passer-by-er. We had our own grass roots meeting on the bad streets of Youngstown.
Dan McNichol is a number-one bestselling author and an award-winning journalist. His published books, articles, thought-leadership papers and speaking events focus on mega construction projects in the United States and The Peoples Republic of China.
McNichol recently contributed to a front page story in The New York Times titled, “Trump-Sized Idea for a New President: Build Stuff”. The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) / Boston Chapter named McNichol as one of nation’s outstanding journalists in 2014 and again in 2003. McNichol contributes to worldwide media outlets including: The New York Times, Engineering News Record (ENR), ABC World News, CBS News, CNN, Fox News, British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) network, China Central Television (CCTV), TV Tokyo, MSNBC and PBS’s The NewsHour, National Geographic Channel, Discovery Channel, History Channel. McNichol is a frequent voice on National Public Radio (NPR).
ENR Magazine recently tapped McNichol as the magazine’s national correspondent for a cross country tour. McNichol and Aileen Cho, ENR’s senior transportation editor, drove in a 1949 Hudson Commodore with the tagline, “America’s infrastructure is as old, rusty and energy defunct as our original Detroit lead-sled.” The journalists wrote ENR print and online cover stories about the nation’s ailing infrastructure.
A former White House appointee, McNichol served the President on US policy issues surrounding transportation and infrastructure between 1991-1993. McNichol has worked in official capacities on the nation’s largest infrastructure projects: California High Speed Rail (2017), San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge Replacement (2013) and The Big Dig, a.k.a. The Central Artery / Third Harbor Tunnel Project (2000).
