New York Desk
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

MANHATTAN
BILL SIGNED TO PROVIDE TAX INCENTIVES FOR BUSINESSES DOWNTOWN
Governor Pataki, Mayor Bloomberg, and the state Assembly speaker, Sheldon Silver, gathered at 55 Broad St. in Lower Manhattan yesterday to sign a bill that provides significant tax incentives to attract new businesses downtown and encourage those already located there to remain. The law, which eliminates the commercial rent tax in the World Trade Center area and adds a five-year exemption from the commercial rent tax for new and renewed leases in Lower Manhattan, is already yielding results. Yesterday, officials announced that a technology and communications business, the Horn Group, is relocating to 55 Broad St. from California and tripling the size of its workforce. Most of the cost of the new exemptions are being paid by New York City. “This new incentive package will build on our ongoing efforts to promote economic growth, develop new business opportunities, create jobs, and make the new Lower Manhattan stronger than ever,” Mr. Pataki said. Mr. Bloomberg said he wished the state would pay the entire cost of the incentives, but he said the incentives would “ensure that businesses at the World Trade Center site and the surrounding area continue to grow briskly.”
– Staff Reporter of the Sun
LANDLORD SAYS LEASE FOR CBGB WON’T BE RENEWED
As several hundred enthusiastic supporters rallied in Washington Square Park to keep CBGB open, the landlord of the venerable punk club announced yesterday that the lease on the 32-year-old landmark will not be renewed. The Bowery Residents’ Committee, landlord of the building on the Bowery, “believes it is in the best interest of our clients – the homeless and neediest New Yorkers – to sever this relationship,” the BRC executive director, Muzzy Rosenblatt, said. The existing lease was to expire at midnight yesterday. The statement from Rosenblatt called for CBGB to “vacate the premises both voluntarily and expeditiously” – a scenario that appeared unlikely, given the promises of Little Steven Van Zandt and others to wage a battle to the end on behalf of the bar that launched punk rock.
– Associated Press
ALBANY
CANDIDATE TOUTS ENDORSEMENT OF LEADER WHO DOESN’T EXIST
U.S. Senate candidate John Spencer this week gained the support of eight Conservative Party leaders including one county chairman who apparently doesn’t exist. The press release from the former Yonkers mayor, who is hoping for the GOP nomination to take on Senator Clinton, touted the endorsement of the former Conservative nominee for governor and comptroller, Herbert London. It also had endorsements from a state executive committeeman and present and former county chairmen. Among them was Yates County Conservative Party chairman Dick Dean who, according to the state party, doesn’t exist.
– Associated Press
POLICE BLOTTER
WOMAN DEAD AFTER BEING HIT BY CAR
A woman stepped off the median onto Atlantic Avenue in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, yesterday morning and was hit by a westbound 1995 Chevy, police said. The driver stayed at the scene and was not charged because police, who are still investigating, said at this point there are no signs of criminality. The responding EMS unit brought the woman, who was not carrying identification and was still unidentified as of yesterday afternoon, to Brookdale Hospital, where she was pronounced dead upon arrival.
– Special to the Sun
RETIRED FIREFIGHTER ARRESTED FOR BRIBERY
The city’s Department of Investigation arrested a retired firefighter and charged him with attempting to bribe laboratory employees to discard his firefighter son’s positive drug-test results. Yesterday, the department charged the retired firefighter, Thomas DaParma, with bribery and criminal solicitation. With his son facing the prospect of losing his job, Mr. DaParma allegedly offered to pay between $1,000 and $5,000 to laboratory workers on two separate occasions to toss out the urine-test results that showed his son had tested positive for cocaine use. Mr. DaParma’s son Christopher had three prior convictions and was hired by the Fire Department in 2003 with the agreement that he would be tested for alcohol and other drugs on a random basis for three years. On July 7, Christopher DaParma resigned from the Fire Department.
– Staff Reporter of the Sun
STATEWIDE
STEWART TO REMOVE ANKLE BRACELET, REGAIN FREEDOM
Martha Stewart will soon be stepping into the future with a lighter foot. Stewart’s electronic ankle bracelet comes off at “12:05 tonight,” she said yesterday, adding with a smile that the prospect of being rid of it fills her with “nervous excitement.”
– Associated Press
CITYWIDE
POLL: $2.9B TRANSPORTATION ACT MAY NOT WIN VOTER APPROVAL
A City Council poll released yesterday has council members worried that a $2.9 billion transportation bond act on the ballot this November will fail to win voter approval in a statewide referendum. The bond act, if passed, would allocate $1.45 billion to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. However, 31% of the 640 city residents polled said they did not trust the authority to spend the money effectively, even though they believed the MTA needed the funding to improve bus and subway service.
– Special to the Sun
PARK ADVOCATES PUSH FOR PERMANENT OFFICERS TO PATROL PARKS
Park advocates yesterday used the steps of City Hall to call upon the City Council and mayor to make permanent the hiring of 60 new unarmed uniformed officers to patrol the 28,000 acres of parkland throughout the city. The officers’ salaries will be paid for with $2 million from this year’s city budget, but that funding may dry up next year. The new hires will bring to 164 the number of officers in the Parks Enforcement Patrol, according to the parks department. A spokesman for the city’s Department of Parks and Recreation, Ashe Reardon, said the department plans to explore ways to earmark money for the positions in future years.
– Special to the Sun