Buddy Cianci’s Colorful, Controversial Boston History
Buddy Cianci may be the Prince of Providence, but the longtime mayor and twice-convicted felon is no stranger to Boston. As mayor, Cianci heralded Providence as the underdog champion in the ongoing culture war with Boston.
“Cianci always was competitive with Boston,’’ said Darrell West, longtime Rhode Island political expert at the Brookings Institution.
“He felt [Boston] got more credit as a tourist destination than Providence.’’
Everyone has an opinion on the man, even President Barack Obama. In a rare move this week, Obama waded into the mayoral race in the smallest state to endorse Democrat Jorge Elorza.
On the other hand, former Boston Mayor Ray Flynn recently endorsed Cianci.
Cianci, 73, was first elected to the mayor’s office as a Republican in 1975. He stepped down in 1984 after pleading no contest to an assault charge. Cianci allegedly burned a man with a cigarette and threatened him with a fireplace log while a Providence cop watched. (Cianci believed his ex-wife was having an affair with the man).
He was elected mayor again in 1990, this time as a Democrat. He stepped down again in 2002 after the FBI’s Operation Plunder Dome led to a racketeering conspiracy conviction. He served four-and-a-half years in prison.
Now he’s running again, this time as an independent. As we wait to see if Providence voters return him to city hall for a seventh term next week, we’re looking back at his entertaining history/rivalry with Boston.
•When Cianci left prison in May of 2007, he was released to a halfway house near Northeastern University in Boston.
• He found his first post-prison job in marketing and sales for Boston’s XV Beacon luxury hotel.
• As mayor, Cianci was a tireless promoter of the Providence restaurant scene. He claimed Providence restaurants were better than Boston’s. According to Cianci biographer Mike Stanton, “Food & Wine” magazine agreed, rating Providence’s restaurants ahead of Boston’s.
• Cianci helped bring hockey to Providence with the American Hockey League Providence Bruins, the primary development team for The Boston Bruins.
• Perhaps his most ambitious coup never came true. In 1997, Cianci and Rhode Island officials tried to lure the Patriots to Providence with a $250 million stadium complex plan. Half of that would have been publicly financed. The idea of Providence hosting a franchise juggernaut so closely associated with Boston had Rhode Islanders rabid with excitement.
The same could not be said for Bostonians.
“It’s a disgrace,’’ Michael S. Dukakis, the former Massachusetts governor and Democratic Presidential candidate, said at the time.
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