He has always been one of my favorite urban mayors, though their new mayor David Cicilline is a true gem!. There’s not a place that I visit, if I mention what Providence has done to reinvent itself as a creative center, that someone rises from the audience to mention how Buddy encourage their efforts to open an art studio, form a non-profit or what have you, and provide some modest "seed funding." Where those funds came from are a different matter altogether, I reckon. He came to my first-ever book event for Rise in Providence with a reporter from Time in tow (his trial was on at the time). Our picture together, which ran in the magazine, hangs proudly on my office wall. I saw this a while ago, then forgot about it, but found it today when going through some stuff left over from recent travel.
When he gets out of federal prison next week, Vincent A. Cianci Jr.,
the former mayor of Providence, R.I., who was convicted of corruption,
will not exactly be slumming it. He will spend his days among
limousines, heated towel racks and 300-thread-count Italian sheets
working in sales, marketing and public relations for a luxury hotel in
Boston. And Mr. Cianci, known as Buddy, will be going from the
Big House to the State House, almost. The hotel, Fifteen Beacon, is
down the street from the Capitol, and its restaurant, the Federalist,
is a politicians’ haunt.
Way to go Buddy: this sounds like the right career choice. I sure hope to visit and see you soon.
The full New York Times story is here.
”Everybody makes mistakes in their
life, but you go to Providence, he did a good job,” said George Regan,
a spokesman for Fifteen Beacon’s owner, Paul Roif. ”Why not give him a
shot?”Mr. Regan said that when Mr. Roif, a Rhode Islander,
was approached by a mutual friend, his reaction was, ”He’d be great
for this hotel.”Mr. Cianci, 66, the charismatic,
longest-serving mayor of Providence, was convicted in 2002 of
racketeering conspiracy. After his release from prison in Fort Dix,
N.J., on May 30, he will wear an ankle bracelet and be under federal
supervision in Boston until July 28. Until then, his hotel pay will be
capped, according to federal rules, and he will not be staying at
Fifteen Beacon but at a halfway house that Mr. Regan described by
saying ‘’some junkyards are nicer.”News of Mr. Cianci’s job surprised Rhode Islanders, but many quickly saw the logic.
”How
smart of him to get out of Rhode Island,” said Lincoln Chafee, the
former senator. ”It’s just too insular and provincial here. They know
his whole life story, every wart.”Mr. Chafee added, ”It’s
perfect symbolism — a man with just enormous ability to do good things
counterweighted by another side that keeps getting him in trouble,
working at a five-star hotel by day, but then paying his penance at
night by going to a halfway house.”Arlene Violet, a lawyer and radio personality, said: ”He could sell snow to Eskimos. I think he’ll do a good job.”
There
is logic for Fifteen Beacon too, said Art Canter, president of the
Massachusetts Lodging Association. ”He brings a lot of news to the
hotel — that’s a major plus,” said Mr. Canter, although he doubts the
hotel would let Mr. Cianci sell his ”Mayor’s Own Marinara Sauce.”He
also would not be handling money, Mr. Regan said, ”but the other
public relations people aren’t allowed near the cash box either.”
