filed under Politics | Readings & Lectures
Just like the good ol’ days
10:24AM ON
03/07/2008
BY
Daily Dose
March 18th at Brown. (Always fun to realize that a lot of Brown students probably don’t know the background.)
Vincent “Buddy” Cianci, Jr. served as the mayor of Providence, Rhode Island from 1975 to 1984 and again from 1991 to 2002. Widely considered to be one of the most exciting and charismatic leaders in the City of Providence’s history, Cianci’s 21-year tenure as mayor made him the longest-serving American mayor of a city of 100,000 or more. Not an uncontroversial figure, Cianci was indicted in April 2001 on federal criminal charges of racketeering, conspiracy, extortion, witness tampering, and mail fraud. Acquitted on 26 of 27 charges, Cianci was found guilty of a single charge of conspiracy and was sentenced to serve nearly five years in federal prison.
Since his release in May 2007, Cianci has hosted his own show on a Providence radio station, and has served as chief political analyst for ABC6 News.
Tickets are available to students, faculty, and staff and will be distributed on a first-come, first-serve basis. A Brown ID is required, and up to two tickets will be given out per ID. Tickets will be accepted until 7:45. Open to the public - space permitting - after that.
Tickets will be distributed Thursday (3/13) & Friday (3/14) prior to the lecture, and possibly Monday if there are tickets left. Ticket distribution time 11am - 1pm in the ticket office in lower Faunce.
March 7th, 2008 at 11:05AM
John Biltobe Says:
Where’s the outrage?
This man is a convicted felon???
He cause signficant damage to Providence - and only because of his ‘charm’ has he gotten this far.
It’s amazing (and pathetic) that he still has an audience.
Shame on Brown for hosting an event featuring him.
[Reply]
March 7th, 2008 at 6:22PM
Patrick Maloney Says:
“Where’s the outrage?
This man is a convicted felon???
He cause signficant damage to Providence - and only because of his ‘charm’ has he gotten this far.”
do you fail to grasp that the charm you attack is the only reason providence is not like bridgeport, hartford, lowell, or worcester?
i would rather have buddy taking bribes while supporting the arts then Cicilline selling our soul to real estate devlopers.
look at the type of development cianci oversaw- atwells ave, the rivers, waterplace park, the mall, the westin, etc..
now look at Cicilline- condos, condos, condos, destruction of historic buildings (fruit warehouse, old fire HQ, and the site where the “one10″, among other follies. i wouldn’t be surprised if he planed on knocking down the armory and the paving over roger williams park if he could sell it to the right developer.
no one can doubt that cianci was a crook, but he was the crook who still got things done that benefited the people. he was an old world ward boss while cicilline is the slick businessman who sees only dollar signs and not human beings.
[Reply]
March 8th, 2008 at 12:39PM
Eric Smith Says:
I have to agree with Patrick on at least a few of these points. And of course I’m an expert because I read Prince Of Providence, but anyway, Cianci was one of those old school ward bosses, only his ward was all of Providence. And although he made some very questionable decisions, (which politician hasn’t) and did some rather despicable things, he was, for the most part, and in between getting a little take here and there, looking out for his beloved city and it’s people, who I think he considered family. Just don’t cross him. (which is wrong and bad for government, obviously) As far as Cicilline, all I can say is that things have gotten harder for many people I know because of him, maybe not for me personally but it’s probably just a matter of time…
[Reply]
March 9th, 2008 at 11:19AM
Mike Schwartz Says:
Uh…..
Things were great if you made the required campaign contributions - ‘pay to play’ and were connected.
Who cares whether Cicanci was better than the current Mayor or not - that’s not the question.
And, from what I understand, much of the ‘progess’ Malooney cites that happened during the Cianci ‘reign of terror’ happened in spite of him - not because of him.
Cicanci traumatized a whole city with his style and channigans.
Much like a dictator - or one who suffers abuse at the hands of an abusive parent - the residents of Providence had little choice but to transfer their fear into ‘love’ for the guy.
Meanwhile, internally the City was on the verge of financial ruin, departments so incredibly poorly run (and purely based on political favors), etc.
This isn’t about defending the current Mayor - who I agree is way too ‘business’ oriented - and ignore some basic problems of the poorest in the city.
But come-on, rewarding a felon-thug like Cianci doesn’t help anybody (except for him)….
[Reply]