The Prince of Providence
We moved to Rhode Island in August and are trying our best to assimilate here. Thus, it was fitting to receive “The Prince of Providence” as a Christmas gift from Bill Novakowski and Andrea Andrea Schoening Novakowski . The Prince of Providence was Vincent “Buddy” Cianci. Cianci (like nearly everyone here) grew up in Rhode Island. His father was a physician (a proctologist), so he grew up in privilege. He went to the right schools, although being of Italian descent, he came in for some ridicule in this ethnically Balkanized community. He got a law degree from Marquette University. When Cianci decided to run for mayor of Providence, he styled himself as the anti-corruption candidate taking on the graft and bribery that characterized city hall up to that point. Remarkably, Cianci ran as a Republican in this overwhelmingly Democratic state and won through energy, grit and determination. But rather than extirpating the corruption, Cianci was subsumed by it. The parade of petty criminals t...