By Charles Mahtesian

First, the feds snared the municipal tax collectors. Then they took down a few well-connected local lawyers. Finally, last summer, prosecutors struck deep into the mayor’s inner circle and indicted a trusted aide. Everyone knew what was coming next, but nevertheless, Monday’s news still stunned the city of Providence, Rhode Island.

In a far-reaching, 30-count indictment, Mayor Vincent A. Cianci Jr. and five others, including two close staffers, were charged with racketeering, money laundering, conspiracy, extortion, mail fraud and witness tampering.

No one ever accused Buddy Cianci of being a boy scout — he himself jokes that he’s “no Mother Theresa” — but until this week, the city of Providence never had to confront the suggestion that its brash and mercurial mayor directly oversaw a vast criminal enterprise from his City Hall office. Now, still flush with praise over the city’s Cianci-led rebirth, residents find themselves wondering for the first time if Buddy Cianci has been good for Providence — or whether Providence has been good for Buddy Cianci.

With the exception of a few neighborhoods that never succumbed to his charm, Providence and Cianci have lived together for over two decades with an implicit understanding: As long as the mayor poured his heart and soul into the city, residents could tolerate the graft and boodling that always seemed to swirl close to the surface of his administration.

It was an easy bargain to make. Even if everyone around Cianci may have been lining their pockets, residents could take comfort in the intuitive knowledge that Cianci practiced politics for an entirely different reason. He thrived on and desperately needed the affection and acceptance that accompanies the job. In return, the insecure and parochial-minded city drew hope and optimism from the mayor’s boundless reservoir of enthusiasm and energy.

This co-dependent relationship dates back to 1975, when Cianci first stormed into office as a young Republican reformer in a heavily Democratic town. After breathing life into his dying city, he then rode it to the brink of fiscal collapse. Cianci survived that crisis, but soon faced another — this one of a more personal nature. In 1984, he was convicted and received a five-year suspended prison sentence for an incident in which he physically attacked a man he accused of having an affair with his wife.

The sentence forced him from office, but by 1990 Cianci returned for a second tour of duty. This time, he didn’t disappoint. Over the past decade, under his hands-on stewardship, the city has undergone a remarkable physical transformation from urban ugly duckling to sparkling destination spot. At one time, Providence was better known as New England’s dreary organized-crime capital. Today, the country knows it as the charming and leafy locale for its namesake prime-time television series. Cianci is responsible for all of it.

That’s what makes the indictment so tragic. At a time when Cianci should be basking in acclaim and reflecting back on his rise, fall, and triumphant return, he is instead faced with the prospect, if he is convicted, of disgrace and possible incarceration.

There are plenty of indignant do-gooders who see this as Cianci’s comeuppance after years of walking one step ahead of the law. Maybe it is, but anyone who thinks Cianci is just another white-collar crook hasn’t been to Providence lately.

Charles Mahtesian is a former staff writer for Governing.

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