Aliano’s profound influence on Norwich

In helping decide who The Day should endorse in the Norwich mayoral race, I met with the three major candidates. While my questions varied based on their respective platforms, there was at least one common question for all three:  "How do you get along with Ron Aliano?"
I could not have imagined then that Ronald D. Aliano, a dominant figure in Norwich for the 23 years I have worked at The Day, would not live to see the election. Aliano died Oct. 31. He was only 65.
I won’t disclose the answers the various candidates gave to the question. It’s irrelevant now. But I can report that none of them questioned the relevance of the query. Though he never held elected office in this city, Aliano’s influence was profound. Anyone who would be mayor had to know that, if elected, they would be dealing with him at some point. Unfortunately, his death due to medical problems changed that.
Ron Aliano made his money from the ambulance business, but his passion was trying to transform the Norwich waterfront. Under a long-term lease with the city, he opened the Marina at American Wharf in 1989. It was a remarkable achievement, helping earn him the Norwich Citizen of the Year award in 1988. Where once there was a dilapidated old wharf, a sad legacy of a once proud industrial city, there was, seemingly overnight, a bustling marina, filled with luxury craft, a dockside restaurant and pedestrian mall.
Aliano intended it to be just the start of the revitalization of the waterfront. Unfortunately, it turned out to be the highlight, at least in his lifetime.
Though we locked horns a few times, I always admired his drive to get the Norwich waterfront turned around, something Aliano saw as the key to downtown revitalization. I often wondered why this successful businessman, who could have invested his resources in other communities with better guarantees of return, was so persistent in trying to get Norwich revitalized.
When I pressed him on this once, he laughed that he was "just thick headed," but in a moment of seriousness explained that he loved the city, having adopted it as his own since moving to Norwich in 1972, and he desperately wanted to see it realize its potential.
One day in 2003 he summoned me to his office at American Ambulance, swearing me to secrecy before I entered. Aliano had only recently lost his long battle to try to convince the state to relocate Three Rivers Community College to the Norwich waterfront as a way of kick-starting revitalization.
Undaunted, Aliano said he had big ideas and wanted to provide me a heads up so that The Day  would be better prepared to report on those plans once they were formally announced. Covering a conference table were maps, blueprints and drawings of a dream Norwich waterfront. As Aliano inhaled on one cigarette after another, shoving the butts into a large ashtray, he excitedly pointed to plans for a park, pedestrian bridges spanning canals, luxury condos, restaurants, a hotel and conference center.
There was no partner with pockets big enough to make it happen, yet, he conceded, but there were prospective developers. There were always prospective developers.
In 2002 Aliano invited Mayor Vincent A. "Buddy" Cianci Jr. to come to Norwich to impart some of the wisdom that led to the successful renaissance of Providence. The "Prince of Providence," then under indictment for racketeering and awaiting trial, but still an immensely popular mayor, accepted. On Feb. 8 Cianci held court at a reception at the Marina at American Wharf and then recessed to a local restaurant for a private gathering with Aliano and invited guests. The event seemed to bolster Aliano’s confidence about a Norwich renaissance.
Aliano’s instincts as a businessman and the demands of open governance did not always dovetail. In 2002, after the city attorney ruled that any City Council discussions with Aliano about harbor development plans would have to take place in public, Aliano offered to privately meet with aldermen in groups of two or three to avoid a quorum. The council aldermen passed on that idea.
A perfectionist by nature, he was always insisting that any development that did take place downtown and around the waterfront be high quality. Aliano’s criticisms of designs he did not like were both witty and searing.
"If that thing gets built, I’ll tear it down myself," he famously told the Norwich Community Development Corp. in 2006 when he saw the first artist rendering of the planned $21 million transportation center. Construction of that project will begin soon, with a design that met with Aliano’s approval.
In 2003 he called plans for a parking garage "an abomination to the community. We don’t need to be looking at that for another 40 or 50 years." And when a fellow developer sought approval for waterfront condos near Aliano’s marina, he warned "of another mistake that’s going to be with us for decades."
He had a fierce temper. There were few things to fear more than having to call Ron Aliano and confront him with questions about a story you knew he would not like — and there were a few.
I found the best approach was holdng the phone a few inches from my ear until the shouting stopped, and then start asking questions. The more serious issues required a face-to-face visit and dealing with the Aliano whithering stare.
But answer the questions he did and I never knew him to hold a grudge. And when the news was good, the shine of his happy expression was the equal to the dark gaze that showed he was not pleased.
Ron Aliano was a unique individual. Skeptical by nature, I never shared his optimism about the revitalization potential around Norwich’s harbor. But at the same time, I always wanted him to prove me wrong, to see those papers once spread across a conference table in his office come to life.
And that may yet happen. I hope it does. Nothing would please Ron more.
Paul Choiniere is the editorial page editor.