CITYWIDE

Community Board To Hear From Armory Opponents

An Upper East Side community board will hear arguments today from a group of neighbors and veterans who want to delay the planned renovation of the Seventh Regiment Armory on Park Avenue and 67th Street. The state will soon finalize a lease to transfer the landmarked 19th century armory to a non-profit caretaker organization, the Seventh Regiment Armory Conservancy, which hopes to begin a $150 million restoration in the next two and half years. The group also wants to transform the existing exhibition space into a part time,1,500-seat performing arts venue. Last week, a community board subcommittee deadlocked after months of deliberation about whether the proposed renovations would require an environmental impact statement. The Conservancy says they have already completed a very thorough environmental analysis, which a state court recently decided was sufficient. This time, the Veterans of the Seventh Regiment are joined by a group of Park Avenue co-op boards that are worried that the renovation would worsen traffic. The community board’s vote is advisory, however, and the Conservancy can proceed without approval.

— Staff Reporter of the Sun

City Modifies Job Creation Agreement With Met Life

Critics are saying the city went too easy on the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company after the company reneged on a corporate retention deal. In 1997, the Giuliani administration offered Met Life $27 million in tax breaks to locate about 1,750 jobs in Long Island City, Queens, rather than in New Jersey, until 2021. But the company announced recently that it would soon relocate much of that operation to Midtown. Yesterday, the city’s Industrial Development Agency announced that it had modified Met Life’s deal, forgoing the maximum fine, up to $24 million, in exchange for an extended job commitment to New York City. Met Life must make a one-time repayment of $5 million to the city if its occupancy in Queens falls below the level now required, and it agreed to give up about $13.4 million in remaining tax benefits from the original deal. In a statement, a watchdog group, Good Jobs New York, criticized the city’s decision, calling it, “a disappointing step backward on both substance and transparency.”

— Staff Reporter of the Sun

City Approves Tax Breaks To Help Expand Diamond District

The board of the city’s Industrial Development Agency voted yesterday to extend up to $37.5 million in tax breaks to a developer, Extell, to build a $434 million office tower for diamond and jewelry businesses in Midtown’s Diamond District along 47th Street between Fifth and Sixth avenues. According to the city’s statement, the tax breaks will be administered on a sliding scale, “dependent on the level of occupancy by businesses that are within the diamond and jewelry industry and businesses that are new to, or expanding in, New York City. “Some nearby building owners and some tenants in the Diamond District had complained that the subsidy would give Extell an unfair advantage, allowing the landlord to attract existing district tenants by offering below market rents. The city said the subsidy is necessary to attract new private investment to New York’s dwindling diamond industry.

— Staff Reporter of the Sun

Police Misconduct Investigations Take Too Long, NYCLU Says

Investigations of police misconduct are backlogged and take too long, according to a New York City civil liberties group that is calling for a review of the Civilian Complaint Review Board, which investigates such police allegations. In a letter to the board’s leaders dated November 9, officials at the New York Civil Liberties Union said they were concerned that time delays could affect a statue of limitations for disciplining officers. In a written statement prepared in response to the NYCLU letter, CCRB officials yesterday defended the board’s investigative procedures. The board panel submits votes in advance and only discusses cases on which board members disagree, officials said. In addition, they noted that although caseloads have increased, the CCRB closed cases faster this year than last.

— Special to the Sun

POLICE BLOTTER

Police Get New Bulletproof Vests

Several thousand police officers have become the first to receive the police department’s newest bulletproof vests, which are expected to replace all older models by the end of 2007, officials announced yesterday. So far, 4,500 officers have the new Level 3A Maximum Coverage vests, and 15,000 officers have been fitted for new ones, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said.

— Special to the Sun