3rd and Walnut gusher | Apple Lofts on market (again) | transpo project funding roundup | Kahn Park homelessness | RIP Sen. Specter

Good morning, Streeters. Hope you enjoyed the beautiful fall weekend. Today’s high will edge toward 70° but it could be rainy, so don’t forget your umbrella. Here’s The Buzz:

Millions of gallons of water flooded Old City on Saturday when another of the city’s major water mains broke – this time at 3rd and Walnut. The Inquirer reports the 36-inch transmission pipe burst as Water Department crews were looking for the location of a known leak along that pipe, so crews were already on the scene. It took 75 minutes to shut off the damaged pipe and restore normal water service to greater Center City. As Necessity for Ruins reminded us, the flood briefly returned the Old Dock Creek to the surface.

Apple Lofts, the warehouse apartment conversion project at 52nd and Baltimore, appears to be on hold indefinitely, reports West Philly Local. This news comes mere months after a touchy rezoning process and community debate. Now the developers, Iron Stone Strategic Capital Partners, are marketing the warehouse as a “fully approved student housing/apartment project, through NAI Geis Realty Group. The asking price is $2 million.

The Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission approved $3.8 billion in transportation improvement projects. PlanPhilly’s Christine Fisher runs through the funded projects, which include SEPTA “smart cards,” signal prioritization on Bustleton Avenue and Woodland Avenue, streetscape improvements to Avenue of the Arts North, I-95 reconstruction, and repairs to aging bridges.

In Washington Square West’s Kahn Park, a growing number of homeless individuals are using the park after dark, reports the Inquirer. In part it’s a sign of the times, but it’s also due to the park’s design (which creates an area tucked away where people can sleep – or worse), and broken lighting. The situation “upsets us because it drives people away,” said Constance Moore, president of Friends of Louis I. Kahn Park.

Senator Arlen Specter died Sunday of complications from non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma at home in East Falls. Daily News political columnist John Baer reflects on Specter’s career, party switching, and his unpredictable politics that were never uniformly left or right. “There was no one like him.”

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