|
|
4.7.2001 00:10
After day in court, Cianci cranks through hectic public calendar
 The mayor has vowed to continue business as usual, but now he's followed by a pack of reporters and photographers every step of the way.
BY KAREN LEE ZINER
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE
-- By 6 p.m. on a day that had begun with a court appearance on federal racketeering charges, fingerprinting and mugshots, Mayor Vincent A. Cianci Jr. still had more events on his hectic schedule.
"No, I'm not tired. I just came up to get a new shirt," Cianci said during a phone call from his apartment at the Providence Biltmore. He was just going to put on that fresh shirt, he said, and relax -- but only for a minute.
"I'm going to a Cambodian wake, and a private birthday party," the mayor said, and he planned to end the night at a fundraiser for the Kidney Foundation. Conveniently, it would be at the Biltmore, where he lives.
"After I left the courtroom, my life was just the same. It hasn't changed," he insisted. For now, "I continue to be mayor."
However determined Cianci remains to carry on with "business as usual" since he was indicted by a federal grand jury Monday, he has learned he can count on one thing: the media dogging his every footstep.
They were in force yesterday morning, as they have been all week, gathering outside the courthouse on Kennedy Plaza starting at 6 a.m., to await his arrival.
The mayor has vowed to continue business as usual, but now he's followed by a pack of reporters and photographers every step of the way.
At 9:10 a.m. when Cianci stepped outside his shiny black Lincoln and tried to make his way toward his lawyer, Richard Egbert, the mayor was swarmed.
"I mean, you get out of the car and they almost physically assault you. Microphones brushing up against my face, my cheeks. They won't let you move on, and it's like, 80 people were there. I thought there would be cameras there, but they all scream and yell and there's . . . no order to it. They just want to get your face on the news."
Conceding that "the media [have] a right to ask questions, the right to be there," nonetheless, Cianci said, "I hate it when they don't let me walk. They just ask you the silliest questions" over and over, he said.
From his court appearance, where he says court officials "were extremely courteous and kind," Cianci returned to City Hall to conduct business.
Next, the Lincoln motored to the West End, to a New Year's celebration for the Cambodian/Lao community.
Cianci huffed up a flight of stairs, then raised his hands to his chest in the traditional "wai," a prayerful greeting of respect, to the Cambodians who greeted him at the Socio-Economic Development Center for Southeast Asians.
In a room redolent with an aromatic banquet and spicy chili sauces, Cianci spoke of the Census 2000 results that show the Asian community has grown in Rhode Island by 31 percent. "That's good news for all of us," he said.
Next, it was off to Dorcas Place, an adult literacy program on Elmwood Avenue, where a 20th anniversary celebration was in progress.
The mayor said last evening that he ate lunch with his top aide and codefendant, Artin H. Coloain, who is charged in the indictment with bribery and bribery conspiracy, but not racketeering.
Coloian has been suspended without pay as "a matter of form," the mayor said. "I feel really badly for him. He's truly a gentleman, number one. He's got a lot of friends. He is not guilty of what they accused him of doing. Believe me. Trust me."
Asked about his private moments during this time of stress, Cianci said he hasn't cried. "No," he said. "I'm enraged a little bit. I haven't cried. I got teary-eyed at one point when Nicole [his daughter] called."
But look, Cianci added, "I'm not a man of steel. Blood runs in my veins. I have thoughts. I have reminiscences and nostalgia. I look at the things we've been able to accomplish in this city . . ."
He has been buoyed by the letters and e-mails and plants and flowers that have arrived at his office and at the Biltmore. "I don't know how I can answer them," he said. "There's just a tremendous amount of caring, people I haven't heard from in 10 or 15 years."
He's concerned, he admitted, "as anybody would be."
But the mayor of Providence said he's been reflecting on how "at first, when you start out in this business, you're not strong," but "you get stronger as it goes on."
He's been doing this for 25 years now, Cianci said, and "I can handle this."
|
|
|
Printer-Friendly Version
