Mt. Airy Weaver’s Way reborn | Council resumes | Whither 1200 Chestnut | Loss: Tony Goldman, Bob Phillips | message in Goldtex peace

Weavers Way Co-Op in Mt. Airy reopened Sunday after weeks of renovation. The Inquirer’s Karen Heller was on hand, watching returning members react to the co-op’s updated, “astonishingly nice” space. Purchasing manager Norman Weiss has a message for members who think it too swanky, fear not: “It will be fancy for some years, then it will be decrepit and start looking like crap again.”

City Council returns today for its first meeting since June, and the Daily News looks ahead at issues that will be on Council’s agenda for this session, including property tax reform, land banking. What ought to be on Council’s radar? The Inquirer editorializes that Council President Darrell Clarke should take on ethics reform by setting a cap on the gifts city employees can receive (thereby limiting influence), require officials to recuse themselves during decisions about nonprofits (not just companies) they have ties to, and cap post-election campaign contributions.

Plans for turning the fabulous, but vacant bank building at 12th and Chestnut into a billiard hall/restaurant/bar complex are not happening, so what’s to become of the place? Naked Philly writes that the property is “available for lease at an affordable $200K/year, triple net. Which, of course, begs the question, what is name of all that is holy can possibly come into this property at something that resembles the asking price, that will do the kind of business that’s needed to meet the rent and won’t be tossed aside by the neighbors who like the neighborhood just the way it is?” Thoughts?

Visionary developer Tony Goldman died of heart failure in New York on Tuesday, the Inquirer reports. Since the 1970s Goldman’s investments spurred revitalization of Manhattan’s SoHo, Miami’s South Beach and Wynwood, and in Philadelphia Goldman saw the potential in scrappy 13th Street, concentrating on the block between Walnut and Chestnut. As a developer he focused on renovating historic buildings, capitalizing on their character to turn downtrodden areas into lively, attractive, mixed-use neighborhoods. He also had a thing for street art, and recently funded two exuberant murals along 13th Street.

In other sad news, Fishtown sculptor Bob Phillips died Sunday as the result of an accident in his shop, the Daily News reports. Phillips’ prominent public work in Philadelphia included the giant steel fish, Maximillian, in the former Striped Bass restaurant on Walnut Street and the public art project Metamorphosis at 31st and Girard.

Is the truce between unions and Post Brothers at Goldtex likely to carry over to other city projects or is it an exception? The Inquirer puts that question to unions and contractors, and explains how Rep. Bob Brady helped both sides save face for now.

The Buzz is Eyes on the Street’s morning news digest. Have a tip? Send it along.