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12.30.2001 00:07
2001 - Looking back at . . .
. . . A defiant icon, and a state transformed
• Under siege but unbowed, the seemingly unsinkable Providence Mayor Vincent A. Cianci Jr. scoffed at federal indictment, his case captivating Rhode Islanders until it fell into the shadow of a bigger story.
BY SCOTT MacKAY
Journal Staff Writer
It was a year that will forever be remembered for one day.
Should Rhode Island and the American nation last a thousand years, Sept. 11 -- the day of the worst terrorist attacks in history -- will always define the second year of the millennium.
It was the day that framed the year, the day that changed the way we viewed events, the day that made us look inside ourselves as we groped for answers.
The stories that had dominated the national and local news suddenly seemed smaller, even insignificant.
No one was talking anymore about Timothy McVeigh's execution, or stem-cell research, Bill Clinton's pardons, President Bush's embattled election victory, Gary Condit's infidelity or Jim Jeffords's defection from the Republican Party.
Closer to home, Governor Almond's prostate cancer, the Newport Creamery bankruptcy saga and the Plunder Dome indictment of Providence Mayor Vincent A. Cianci Jr. all faded against the gruesome parade of death.
There was only Life After Sept. 11. A circle of grief, loss and a new wariness widened to include every aspect of life in Rhode Island.
In a blush of patriotism, U.S. flags sprouted from car antennas and front porches. Old Glory lapel pins -- some made in Rhode Island's jewelry factories -- were ubiquitous.
Anxiety and jingoism surged, too, leading to an ugly incident the day after the attacks. A Sikh man wearing a turban was arrested at the Providence Amtrak train station for carrying a ceremonial dagger aboard a train from Boston. Amid the national panic, 60 police officers converged on the station train and put the Sikh into a police cruiser.
People in the crowd jeered when he was taken into custody, and one man was heard screaming, "kill him."
The weapons charges were later dropped when police realized the knife was a kirpan, a religious symbol.
TWENTY
-
SIX
members of the Rhode Island Air National Guard were called up in October for "homeland security" duty and sent to MacDill Air Force Base in Florida. More than 120 U.S. Navy and Coast Guard reservists attached to units in Newport and Providence were put on active duty in November.
Other Guard members were sent to T.F. Green Airport to shore up security. Fewer people flew, but lines were longer at Green as security agents checked passengers more closely and rooted through luggage.
More than 20 Providence police officers and firefighters went to New York City to help with the grisly task of helping in ground zero cleanup efforts. Rhode Island's Disaster Medical Team, a group of doctors, nurses and Red Cross volunteers, went to Manhattan hours after the attack to minister to victims and rescue workers injured in the attacks.
People searched for answers and psychic balm. Rhode Islanders flooded religious services and memorial vigils; a candlelight service three days after the attacks held at the State House attracted more than 10,000 mourners, spilling over the South Lawn.
Churches, synagogues and mosques were full. On the Sunday after the terror, ministers and priests preached to overflowing churches; many clergy members said the crowds exceeded those for the two major Christian holidays of Easter and Christmas.
Parents struggled to explain the inexplicable to children. Older Rhode Islanders drew strength in taking the long view, remembering how the nation rebounded after the attack on Pearl Harbor 60 years earlier.
Nine people with ties to the state died in the attacks. One of the saddest moments of the services for the victims was watching Roman Catholic Bishop Kenneth A. Angell pose the question Christians have asked since the time of Job, and later, St. Augustine: "Where is God in all this?"
Angell, head of the Roman Catholic Diocese in Burlington, Vt., and formerly the auxiliary bishop at the Diocese of Providence, celebrated a memorial Mass at the Cathedral of SS Peter & Paul a week after the tragedy.
Bishop Angell's brother, David Angell, a Providence College graduate who had won fame in Hollywood as executive producer of television's
Frasier
, and David's wife, Lynn Edwards Angell, died on one of the planes that smashed into the World Trade Center.
By December, there were reminders everywhere that this was a holiday season in which no amount of Santa Claus's spirit, tinsel, colored lights and shiny wrapped presents under the tree could erase the brutal reality of terrorism.
BEFORE THE
terrorist attacks, the story that gripped Rhode Islanders was the latest drama in the life of Providence Mayor Vincent A. Cianci Jr., who was indicted in April on federal corruption charges growing from a five-year investigation by the FBI.
The indictment charges that business in the new Providence of glitzy stores, bistros and art galleries was done the old way at Cianci's City Hall -- with a cash bribe in an envelope.
A secret FBI tape aired by Channel 10 in February brought this message home in an astounding manner. The tape shows Frank Corrente, Cianci's top aide, taking a purported $1,000 cash bribe in an envelope and dropping it into his top desk drawer in City Hall. Corrente, who is retired but is also under indictment, quickly denied the charges.
Cianci, elected mayor six times and running for a seventh term in 2002, is much more than mere political figure in Rhode Island. He is his little state's biggest celebrity, a figure who has been in politics since the Nixon administration.
The whiff of chicanery is no stranger to Cianci, the longest-serving mayor since Roger Williams paddled his canoe across the Seekonk and became Providence's first white settler in 1636. In the 1980s, Cianci presided over an administration so corrupt that a federal investigation ended with the convictions of 22 people on various municipal corruption charges; 16 served prison time.
No FBI agent or U.S. attorney got Cianci back then. He got himself: He was convicted of beating up his ex-wife's lover, and as a convicted felon, had to leave office.
Cianci's response this year was to proclaim his innocence, denounce prosecutors and in the oldest of political traditions, change the subject. Cianci called news conferences to talk about anything but the indictment. He talked about his new police chief, Col. Richard Sullivan. Her talked about the Census 2000 results that showed Providence passing Worcester to reclaim its historic place as New England's second-largest city, behind Boston. He talked about his plans for school reform and housing and downtown development and new hotels and selling the naming rights to the Providence Civic Center for several million dollars to Dunkin' Donuts.
He even traveled to ground zero in September, dropping off medical supplies and tools for rescue workers, but was unsuccessful in arranging a meeting with Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. He was successful in meeting Loretta Swit, the actress who played "Hot Lips Houlihan" on the television show
M*A*S*H
. Swit posed for photos with Cianci and accepted a jar of the Mayor's Own marinara sauce.
Cianci chided Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Rose, the lead federal prosecutor, after Rose was caught showing one of the FBI tapes to a friend. "What, was Blockbuster closed that night," Cianci quipped. (A federal court judge fined Rose $500 in June and ordered him to stay out of the case for 30 days.)
By midsummer, the mayor's approval ratings were above 60 percent in a public-opinion poll taken by Brown University pollster Darrell West. Cianci's trial is scheduled for April.
CENSUS 2000
showed that Rhode Island's Hispanic population doubled in the 1990s, propelling Providence to its fastest overall population growth in almost 100 years and making minorities the majority in the city for the first time.
The census results also showed population surges in rural Washington County, with coastal towns such as South Kingstown and Charlestown drawing newcomers to open spaces and ocean views. The fastest-growing community was bucolic West Greenwich, where the population boomed by 46 percent. Communities losing population included Middletown and Newport, where the departure of about a dozen Navy vessels took civilian and military jobs along.
The National Governors Conference brought 40 governors and about 2,000 political aides, journalists, lobbyists and corporate suits to Rhode Island for a week in August. Governors gave speeches and engaged in all sorts of policy discussions, but for Rhode Island, political strategy took a back seat to strutting the state's tourism stuff.
Visiting governors and their families and staff were treated to trips to the state's beaches and lush golf courses, to Newport's famous mansions, and to shopping trips at Providence Place. The entertaining never stopped as people from Kansas and Arkansas learned what a "stuffie" is and how to eat a lobster, and were treated to an evening at The Breakers in Newport that was right out of F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Because Governor Almond wanted to show that Rhode Island isn't just fancy mansions and private beaches, the entertainment included such public events as a Pawsox game at McCoy Stadium, a big State House reception, a special
Waterfire Providence
display and fireworks bursting from Smith Hill.
ALMOND WAS
diagnosed with prostate cancer and had surgery in February at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, where the treatment was pronounced a success. The governor won respect for his openness about the disease and his advocacy of widespread testing for middle-aged men.
The governor, now serving the last year of his term, never lost his sense of humor or trademark modesty as he battled the disease. He quit smoking and lost weight and by year's end looked healthier than before the diagnosis.
One of the year's sadder events was the death of Kenneth Waters, of Providence, who spent 20 years in prison and was released in March after DNA evidence cleared him of murder -- only to die six months later in a freak accident. He fell from a wall while taking a shortcut to buy some cigarettes.
Waters was 48, and his sister, Betty Anne, had secured his freedom, returning to school and eventually earning a law degree to work on his case.
"Kenny had six months of freedom to this day. It's hard," Betty Anne Waters said when he died. "But we look at it as six months of freedom is better than 20 years in jail."
IN DECEMBER,
Miguel Perez, 20, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the May 2000 slaying of 15-year-old murder witness Jennifer Rivera, of Providence.
In a hearing in Superior Court, Perez also implicated two alleged accomplices: Charles Pona -- whom Rivera was going to testify against in another murder case -- and Dennard Walker, the alleged shooter in Rivera's death.
Walker and Perez had both been indicted in April, but the identity of a third person prosecutors said was responsible was not revealed until Perez's hearing in December. Pona, who was ultimately convicted of the murder Rivera was going to testify about, is serving a life sentence and is expected to be indicted in Rivera's death. Perez is awaiting sentencing.
In Burrillville, residents in the Pascoag neighborhood couldn't drink the water.
For up to 4,000 people in the rural town in the state's northwest corner, bottled water was the norm after the gasoline additive MTBE was found in the town's water supply in September.
Since then, residents have been unable to drink or cook with the water. New wells are expected to be operating next month.
THE 2001
General Assembly session was not particularly eventful. The House and Senate approved legislation barring the use of hand-held cell phones while driving, a measure Almond killed with a veto.
House Speaker John Harwood, D-Pawtucket, a lawyer, was ensnarled in a series of controversies over whether he should be practicing law before state agencies and presiding over big spending increases for General Assembly personnel. But by the end of the year, the state Ethics Commission had dismissed the charges and Harwood was stronger than ever.
Rhode Islanders love to complain about high government spending, but state and local government expenditures are actually slightly less than the national average. Those expenditures totaled $221.80 per $1,000 of personal income, compared with the national average of $222.21, which ranked the state 27th, according to a study by the Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council.
Harwood rankled some female political activists by pushing Edward Inman, a Coventry Democrat, to become secretary of state, a vacancy caused by the 2000 election of James Langevin to the U.S. House. With Harwood's backing, Inman, a former public school history teacher, easily won the Assembly vote to replace Langevin. There are currently no women in any elected statewide or federal offices in Rhode Island.
One big Assembly issue that will leak into 2002 is redistricting and downsizing the legislature by 25 representatives and 12 senators. Legislative leaders vow to have a plan on Almond's desk by the end of February to ensure a smooth election cycle. Still unknown is whether legislators who feel aggrieved by the new districts will file suit to block it in federal court.
Another difficulty lawmakers and Almond will grapple with is how to cut spending and increase revenue to deal with a $70-million state budget deficit caused by the recession and fallout from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
The early indication is that there is scant sentiment on Smith Hill for raising broad-based taxes, such as sales or income levies, but on the negotiating table is freezing the phaseout of the nettlesome local motor-vehicle excise taxes.
RHODE ISLAND'S
economy is more diverse than it was a decade ago and so far the state has weathered the recession better than neighboring states or the nation. Rhode Island's unemployment rate is lower than Massachusetts' and the national rate.
But the state lost two local retailers -- Apex and Ann & Hope -- that had served generations of Rhode Islanders. That they were no longer profitable because of competition from national chains was lamented by some as further evidence that the state is losing its distinctiveness.
Elizabeth Buffum Chace, who fought slavery, battled for women's suffrage and defended the rights of factory workers in the 19th century, will be the first Rhode Island woman honored with a statue in the State House.
Inman chose Chace, scion of an old and distinguished Providence family, over abolitionist Christiana Carteaux Bannister and Ann Hutchinson, the founder of Portsmouth.
Brown University made history in July when Ruth Simmons took office as the university's president, becoming the Ivy League's first African-American president. Simmons, former president of Smith College, won plaudits for speaking against censorship and for recommending that Brown establish "need-blind" admissions, admitting students without regard to family income.
By the end of the year, Simmons was bogged down in a nasty fight with graduate teaching assistants who say they are paid so little that they need a union. Simmons has been steadfast in battling the union, hiring a noted anti-union law firm to fight the organizing effort by the United Auto Workers. Many Democratic political figures, including Lt. Gov. Charles Fogarty and both of the state's congressmen, Patrick Kennedy and James Langevin, and all the legislators who represent the neighborhoods around Brown, have lined up against Simmons in support of the UAW. The dispute is in the hands of the National Labor Relations Board.
FOR ONLY
the third time in 40 years, there was new leadership at the Rhode Island State Police.
Steven Pare, 41, a career-long member of the force, was tapped to succeed Col. Edmond Culhane Jr., who retired in October after 11 years as commander.
On the local arts scene, the biggest development was that Oscar Eustis spurned an offer from Yale University's prestigious drama program to stay in Rhode Island as Trinity Reperatory Company's artistic director. In staying, Eustis will help build a theater program at Brown that officials say will rival the drama offerings at Yale and New York University.
Frank Williams, an Abraham Lincoln scholar and Superior Court judge, was sworn in as chief justice of the state Supreme Court. Williams vowed to be accessible to the public and not hide behind his robes on the top floor of the Licht Judicial Complex.
IN LOCAL SPORTS,
the highlight was the Providence College basketball team, which played better than expected in the Big East. The Tim Welsh-coached team's winning ways drew thousands of fans back to the Providence Civic Center. The Friars went to the NCAA tournament, losing in the first round to Penn State. After the season, Welsh was rewarded with a new contract that will pay him a reported $750,000 a year.
The University of Rhode Island Rams had a dismal hoop season and fired coach Jerry DiGregorio. Jim Baron of St. Bonaventure became the new Rhody coach. He already has the team playing better. The big surprise, though, was coach Glen Miller's Brown University hoop team, which defeated both PC and URI, for the first time since the 1953-1954 season.
Over at McCoy Stadium, the Pawtucket Red Sox did not win many games, but the Boston farm club averaged more fans per game that the Major League Montreal Expos.
Rhode Island's heart was won by the Lincoln Little League team, which went to the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pa., before being eliminated in the third game by Lake Charles, La.
The Rhode Island Country Club was the scene of the most nostalgia-tinged sporting moment of 2001. Close your eyes and it could have been 1961 as Gary Player and Arnold Palmer walked up the 18th fairway to a huge ovation. The two golf icons were the featured legends at the CVS Classic, a charity event hosted by Rhode Island's current contributions to the PGA Tour, Brad Faxon of Barrington, and Bristol's Billy Andrade.
Lest auld acquaintance be forgot, we should remember amid tonight's revelry three prominent Rhode Islanders who died in 2001.
• Actor Anthony Quinn, winner of two Oscars, spent his last years at his home on Poppasquash Point in Bristol and was buried on the property overlooking Narragansett Bay. He was 86.
• John Hazen White, of Barrington, who built Taco Inc. of Cranston into a leading manufacturer of heating and cooling systems, then turned in retirement to philanthropy and urging Rhode Islanders to take an interest in politics and make the state a better place to live. He was 87.
• Antoinette Downing, of Providence, crusaded since Franklin Roosevelt's administration to save historic buildings in Providence and Newport and as a scholar and activist became a national leader in the historic preservation movement. She was 96.
Look back at 2001 via projo.com's collection of local year-end stories, special reports on top news events, and more at:
http://projo.com/extra/2001/
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