2020 Power 50: Edward M. Augustus Jr.

Edward M. Augustus Jr., Worcester city manager

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Edward M. Augustus Jr.

Title: City manager
Organization: City of Worcester
Residence: Worcester
Colleges: Suffolk University & Johns Hopkins University

Usually, it’s a city manager’s job to make sure neighborhoods are safe, streets are paved, parks are clean and schools have the resources they need to teach students. Once in a while, it’s about swinging for the fences, to use a sports cliche. Augustus, Worcester’s city manager since 2014, is doing that now with the $132-million Polar Park to host the Worcester Red Sox next year.

Augustus took a directive from the city council in 2017 to do everything in his power to get the team and ran with it, drawing the team away from its decades-long home in Rhode Island. Augustus is focused on economic development in other ways too, with his administration supporting incentives for a planned hotel in Washington Square, a new Table Talk Pies facility, and a manufacturing building for Chinese life sciences firm WuXi Biologics and others. Augustus and his team have supported the fledgling downtown business improvement district and signed on to the state’s vacant storefront occupancy program making new businesses eligible for up to $10,000 in refundable state tax credits.

What makes Central Mass. unique? Worcester and Central Massachusetts are both very rich in intellectual capital. We’re committed as a city to keeping our best and brightest here in Worcester and the region. Worcester is a growing city, and we expect the 2020 U.S. census to illustrate that growth. The 2000 census data had our population at just under 173,000. That census estimate in 2018 had jumped to just under 186,000 – an increase of 7.6% – which far outpaced many cities in the Northeast, including Manchester, N.H., Providence, Albany, and Hartford.

History buff: I have always been fascinated with history, especially political history. At the age of 13, I began collecting political campaign buttons, and to date my collection has grown to more than 2,000.

Power 50: View the entire Power 50 Class of 2020