Men Who Like to Travel - David Latt

If you lived in Providence when I did in the mid-1970s, you would never go back. In those days, the city was suffering the human equivalent of deep depression. Jobs were scarce. Downtown was dominated by the boarded up Biltmore Hotel and a grimy Amtrak station. If you wanted to eat out, your choices were pretty much restricted to Mafi-style Italian restaurants and food from diners like the Haven Bros. Diner in front of City Hall. All that has changed. Renamed the Renaissance City , Providence has been reborn. Downtown was revived by Buddy Cianci , the frequently indicted and much revered mayor of Providence, who convinced Amtrak to relocate so he could create a park in the center of the city. He tore up the streets that had paved over the Providence, Woonasquatucket, and Moshassuk Rivers and created a Venice-like system of canals that are used today by WaterFire (http://www.waterfire.org/), the summer festival that transforms the center of the city into a street fair of musi