Vince Fumo's 27-room Art Museum mansion is on the block, and for just $7 million, it can be yours, complete with basement shooting range, brick oven, elevator, three kitchens, underground tunnel, servants' quarters and self-melting sidewalks. It's unclear if the sales price includes the 19 Oreck vacuum cleaners.
Family bakers rode to the rescue of trans fats in City Council yesterday, convincing a committee to endorse a bill that would exempt local bakeries from the city's trans fat ban, which is set to begin in January. The hearing seemed to pit "blue collar" neighborhood bakers against Center City croissant-making, butter-fat loving, pastry chef surrender monkeys. We kid, a little, but really that undercurrent was there.
City Council members don't exactly fall over themselves these days to be seen with Mayor Street, but eight of them joined him yesterday as he announced the release of $21 million to spruce up commercial corridors throughout the city. The money comes from a $150 million bond issue Street got council to authorize last year.
In the City Paper, Councilman Jim Kenney waved away rumors that Michael Nutter is considering him as a possible chief of staff. The City Paper also takes a look at the 8th Council District, where folks seem physically unable to settle on a single challenger to Councilwoman Donna Reed Miller.
The city's first openly gay Common Pleas Court judge will be sworn in today. School District officials finally got around to reading that $700,000 management report they commissioned, only to declare it largely unhelpful. City Controller Alan Butkovitz found some flaws in the way the city's elder-care facility is run. DHS is moving rather slowly to get Philadelphia children out of the Tennessee facility where a boy was strangled to death in a scuffle with facility workers.
Lastly, we overlooked Phil Goldmsith's column yesterday on Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell's Youth Studies Center "shakedown." It's worth a look.
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