Physician Comes Back Home to Serve, and Run

By Desiree Parker Friday, March 19, 2010

Dr. David Dafashy loves Williamsburg so much that he turned his back on a higher-paying job to come back to his hometown.

“Williamsburg has always felt like home, and it was my dream to come back,” he says.

Dafashy, like many of this year’s council candidates, grew up in the city. He graduated from Bruton High School, and then went on to Johns Hopkins University and VCU’s School of Medicine. He did his residency at the Mayo Clinic and worked for a bit in Wilmington, NC, until a job came open at William and Mary’s Student Health Center.

Dafashy jumped at the chance, and moved back a little over two years ago even though it would mean a relatively big pay cut. His parents still live in the area – his father is a retired William and Mary business professor and his mom has been a WJCC teacher for 42 years – so the move meant he’d be back with family.

After traveling in Italy, Dafashy met his wife, whom he married one year ago, and they now live on Burns Lane.

After moving back to the area, Dafashy says a neighbor of his encouraged him to get involved with things going on in the city. He began attending city council meetings.

Why did he ultimately decide to run? “I started thinking about what we as residents can do to make the city a better place, and I’ve always been interested in working with people towards a common goal,” he says. "People are concerned with the way things are going, and I can be a listening ear to find out what residents really want for the community.”

One area where he thinks his listening ear could help is with relationships between Colonial Williamsburg, the college and the city.

“The rift between these groups comes from a lack of communication,” Dafashy says. “I see Williamsburg through many different eyes … and can see the different perspectives,” and this is something he’d bring to a position on council. Working on campus gives him a unique chance to see things from the students’ point of view, and being a long-time resident and talking to people in the community gives him another view.

“There are many things wonderful just the way they are [in the city], but some things need change,” he says.

When WYDaily talked to Dafashy in February, he hadn’t had a chance to ‘dig in’ yet with some of the big issues facing the city. He planned to meet with city officials and flesh out his platform.

Since then, he’s done just that. On his Web site Dafashy lays out the eight areas he feels the city needs to work on in the near future.

One area is the environment and energy conservation. He is a proponent not just of environmentally friendly building practices, but also believes that “damage to the natural environment, be it destruction of tree buffers or deforestation of entry corridors to the city, will diminish the beauty of the area, and make it less attractive to visitors and residents alike.

“For that reason, every effort must be made to preserve the natural beauty and the greenspaces that presently exist.  With the current state of overdevelopment, as evidenced by the vacancy rates of many retail centers, any new construction that requires clearance of greenspaces should be considered less desirable than businesses which seek to restore and revitalize existing structures.”

The budget also ranks high on his list. He likens the city to an individual household – when there’s less income, a household spends less on non-essentials. “If those savings do not make up for the decreased revenue, then a priority list is made and those things at the bottom of the list are eliminated or receive disproportionately decreased funding while higher priorities are protected…

“We should spend taxpayers’ money responsibly. All expenditures should be carefully scrutinized, and we should not fall into the trap of believing that something is necessary simply because we’ve always done it.”

Dipping into the rainy-day funds can be risky, he says, and he doesn’t like the idea of raising taxes.

Tourism is also a high priority to Dafashy. “Attempts at diversification of the local economy should be made with an eye on maintaining and enhancing the desirability of Williamsburg as a vacation destination,” he says. He thinks collaboration is key when it comes to this.

As for commerce, Dafashy believes “everything possible should be done to encourage new business to fill vacant office space. There are far too many empty storefronts lining our streets … correcting this situation is essential to attracting the types of high-quality business that our community deserves.”

Regarding the new four-person rule, he says: “I believe that we should allow this new ordinance a chance to operate, before deciding if the issue requires revisiting. It is imperative that renters and owners alike keep the lines of communication as open as possible, and be respectful of each other’s rights.”

Other issues he believes should be addressed are transportation, education, and transparency in local government.

Aside from his Web site, Dafashy also has a Twitter feed, a You Tube channel and a Facebook page.