Over the past 30 years we have gotten to know many Worcester employees.   One of our favorites and most knowledgeable has been Dave Rushford.   You will be missed greatly!!    Enjoy your retirement Dave, but before you go can you answer a few questions.

 

What was the best thing the City of Worcester did?

Perhaps the best thing that happened under City Manager form of government is actually something that did not happen and that is the laying of the path for the MassPike to bypass Worcester in the 1950s. Folklore has it that the bypass of the city proper was intentional, others say that is nonsense. However that was accomplished, it did allow Worcester to unintentionally maintain its unique character and its neighborhoods. If the Pike had come through with the necessary intersection with 290 in the center city, we would have realized even more major urban renewal clearance creating clover leafs and developable parcels that most likely would have been with unsightly strip malls.

What was the biggest mistake the City of Worcester made?

Conversely, the knuckleheads who chose West Tatnuck instead of West Millbury for creating a regional airport probably committed the most heinous of crimes against the community in recent memory. Now we are subservient to facilities 40-50 miles away in all directions. How tragic

What is the biggest problem with the City of Worcester?

The biggest concern I have for Worcester is the lack of civic pride. Our collective respect for the public landscape is the most common comment from those who first set foot here. Why there is not a community-wide consistent program to keep our public space clean and to promote civic pride in our appearance holds us back from realizing the beauty of both our natural and built-up environments.

What is the City of Worcester biggest asset?

Worcester’s biggest asset is its willingness to accept people from all around the world. Since the earliest times of in-migration, we have been an accepting community allowing for the inclusion of peoples but not their being suffocated by American cultural norms. Our diversity today is our biggest strength, as it was in the 1800s and early 1900s.

Has downtown Worcester improved or gotten worse?

As a lifelong student of Urban Studies, it is downtowns everywhere that pose the most daunting challenges for cities. People complain that every project is sold as the savior, the linchpin, the one that will create the spin-off for an 18 hour livable community. Alas, nothing is the elixir of life as powerful as the market forces that drove people from the center cities beginning fifty years ago. The road back is long and full of pot holes and pitfalls. But with our proximity to metro Boston, an improving economy and commuter rail, we are now finally poised for genuine private-sector investment. We who live here need to look back at what has already been accomplished and support that base development and become cheerleaders for future tax-paying investment.

What are you going to miss most as your job as City Clerk?

I will most miss the person-to-person contact at City Hall. We do not use a machine to answer phones. We did not build a glass wall at the counter on the second floor of City Hall. Instead we opened up e-commerce and exploited email as a constant vehicle for revenue collection and speedy communication. As a result the City Clerk staff are known to thousands of Worcester families as multi-lingual resource-people. This has enhanced revenues growing from $223,000 in 1998 to today at approximately $900,000 per year. The public wins by having an efficient and knowledgeable staff and the city is rewarded with the corresponding revenue stream which allows the office to operate at a break-even point. I will miss the challenges that come with balancing that combination.

Anything else  you want to add?

Requiring residency for employment at this department is something that I wish would be recognized as critical to service delivery at the municipal level. Jobs with any city are not just an occupation; they are a vocation. To hold a public position in the city in which you live offers insight and intimacy that is not even quantifiable. I am most proud that the day-to-day work of all 19 staff at this department is enhanced by the knowledge they bring about our neighborhoods, many congregations and businesses; about crime, schools and businesses. This job is more about community than employment.