UO Magazine > Mar/Apr 2007 > Dover, Delaware

“I’ve lived in many of the cities of the Northeast, but I always looked at Delaware and Dover as a little piece of small-town life nestled in the Northeast,” says Rishi Sawhney, MD, a medical oncologist who moved here last year. He has found the city’s charm, culture, and historical background comfortingly similar to that of Charleston, where he studied at the Medical University of South Carolina. “But Dover is closer to Rehoboth Beach,” he smiles. Sawhney is a self-proclaimed “water person” and Rehoboth, one of several popular seaside destinations, is his favorite beach.

Other cities on the Eastern Seaboard may have played more noted roles in U.S. history, but Delaware has roots as deep and significant as any of the original colonies. Renowned as the founder of Philadelphia, William Penn was the prime mover behind Delaware’s capital city as well. In 1682, the Duke of York, brother of Charles II, added Delaware to Penn’s domain, and before long the doughty Quaker leader had drawn up a plan for the city of Dover. Naming the city after England’s coastal town, a nostalgic favorite of his, he made The Green its dominant feature. As one Dover resident says, “History oozes out of every blade of grass on The Green.”

An island of tranquility filling two large city blocks, The Green is still an important part of city life, especially thanks to the fact that the Legislative Hall (a.k.a. the “new capitol”) sits on a second large grassy mall just to the east. The old capitol, now used for government archives, dominates The Green itself.

The Green has become symbolic of the kind of friendly, small-town life that appeals to Michael Zaragoza, MD, one of five urologists in a practice founded by his father in 1963. Even with this quintupled staff capability, says Michael, “we’re trying to keep up with a growing population in the area.”

Although they’re not affecting the hometown ambience, retirees are arriving, if not in droves, at least in higher numbers than in other Eastern and Middle Atlantic states. In fact, according to Chuck Parsonson, the physician recruiter at Bayhealth Medical Center, the area is growing at twice the national rate. Cities Ranked & Rated recently listed Dover the 25th best place to live in America.

Marilyn Hill, the director of physician services for Beebe Medical Center in Lewes, points out that Delaware ranks top in other lists as well. For example, the University of Massachusetts’ Political Economy Research Institute placed Delaware first on its Work Environment Index, which measures job opportunities, job quality, and workplace fairness.

There are good reasons why Delaware is so highly rated: low housing prices, low property taxes, and no sales tax at all. Many a billboard in neighboring states proclaims the latter, which produces a certain expected outcome, whimsically illustrated by Zaragoza. “People from Delaware take the ferry from nearby Lewes (pronounced “Lewis”) across Delaware Bay to Cape May, New Jersey, to revel in the Victorian charm of the seaside town. But New Jerseyites on the boat coming from Cape May are on their way to gorge themselves on tax-free merchandise in Delaware.”

In fact, New Jersey’s tax losses were Delaware’s gain long before brilliant politicians ever engineered revenue from people buying dresses and shoes. The Garden State passed America’s first business incorporation laws in the late 1800s, providing attractive incentives for companies to establish headquarters there. But thanks to maneuvering by then Governor—and presidential candidate—Woodrow Wilson, New Jersey backtracked in 1912, enacting restrictive corporate measures, such as antitrust laws. It was an invitation for businesses to jump ship—or to board the ferry for Delaware. And they did.

In Delaware, pioneering 1899 legislation had opened the door for businesses to organize without having to wait for passage of a special law. “One thing led to another,” according to Rick Geisenberger, Delaware’s current assistant secretary of state, “and officials continued increasing their expertise in easing companies through the incorporation process.” The biggest boon, adds Geisenberger, is the Court of Chancery, renowned for its fairness, protection against unreasonable punitive damages and ability to handle increasingly complex corporate issues. In fact, the legal system is so revered that it’s been rated Number One by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce for the last five years, with a top five standing before that.

Professor Eleanor Craig of the University of Delaware’s economics department says, “We’ve dumped a lot of resources into making sure the state supplies good and timely information (to businesses).”

The bottom line for Delaware residents is lower taxes across the board. Today, says Geisenberger, 61 percent of Fortune 500 companies and more than half of all publicly traded firms are incorporated here, although not all with large physical presences. Their fees and taxes provide 22 percent of state revenue.

The resulting “triangle trade”—business-friendly laws, to lower resident taxes, to greater population—seems to benefit everyone. The result is an increasing work force because employers such as Playtex International, Kraft Foods, and financial services industries are growing, as well as credit card and catalog fulfillment centers.

But even with burgeoning development, neighborliness thrives. “There are a lot of people out walking, walking their dogs and jogging at all times of day,” Zaragoza says. “We even do things as old fashioned as borrowing milk from each other.” He does admit that this homey setting may not be exactly what the younger, unmarried crowd is looking for, although married physicians find it ideal for family life.

Even Delaware’s politicians work at sociability. Returns Day has been a long tradition. After elections, both winners and losers gather in nearby Georgetown for an all-day event aimed at burying the hatchet. “This is really such a small state that they can’t afford to act hostile,” says Ed Perez, the executive director of Main Street Dover.

With a symphony, ballet, and theater groups, among other cultural attractions, Dover provides interesting leisure activities, as well as various dining and entertainment options. The well-respected Biggs Museum of American Art adds another dimension to the city’s art scene. However, the beaches and wildlife are perhaps the strongest attractions.

The Delaware climate is as welcoming as the neighbors. As newcomer and family practitioner Andrea Arellano, MD, puts it, “The winter is really mild, but we still have four seasons.” The ocean currents keep the temperatures moderate. Dover is a mere six miles from the Little Creek Wildlife Area set amid coastal marshes of Delaware Bay and close to where it flows into the Atlantic. In fact, the state’s whole eastern border is watery, from the Delaware River flowing south to Delaware Bay and into the Atlantic. The state’s 11 ocean beaches, primarily Rehoboth, Lewes, and Dewey, are magnets for massive numbers of summer sun lovers from Washington, Baltimore, and Philadelphia as well as Delaware.

Others seek serenity by watching the many species of birds at 12 wildlife areas that cover at least two-thirds of the coastal area. The 15,000-acre Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge, along with the Little Creek and Woodland Beach Wildlife Areas and the Ted Harvey Conservation Area, cover half of the Central Delaware shoreline.

Sawhney already knows it’s 40 minutes to Rehoboth, his favorite beach. He admits traffic can be heavy in summertime, but a new extension of the Route 1 Highway to the shore has helped reduce congestion.

“I’m entertained at home by my son, who’s 5,” says Arellano, but she is still attracted to both Rehoboth and its neighboring Lewes Beach, partly because of the stores to be found there, a good share of them consolidated into three major outlet malls.

Just as summertime beach lovers from proximate metropolitan areas take advantage of Delaware’s shores, Dover residents find the larger cities’ amenities easy to access for day trips or weekends. Sawhney has calculated, “It’s 1 hour, 20 minutes to Philadelphia, 1 1/2 hours to Baltimore, 2 hours to Washington, and 2 1/2 hours to New York.” He and his math-teacher wife live in Camden, about three miles south of Dover.

For Zaragoza, the old maxim of “location, location, location” couldn’t be more pertinent. “I live only 12 minutes from the hospital—door-to-door—and I actually have one of the longer commutes of the medical staff. The hospital is across the street from the Catholic school where his sons, 13 and 10, are students. “If one of the boys is reading at Mass or involved in a school performance, I can adjust my schedule and hop over there.”

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