• Downtown Development Authority managing director Al Battle is leaving the City after more than nine years. Battle, who is going to work for the Fort Lauderdale Community Redevelopment Agency, starts mid-February. He’ll serve as director.
• In contrast to last Sunday’s 40-degree football weather for the Jaguar game, the Gator Bowl has a blessing: the long-range forecast calls for a high of 77 with cloudy skies.
• How hot is our housing market? Very hot, according to statistics from the Florida Association of Realtors. The Jacksonville area topped the state’s larger markets last month with higher figures in both sales and median price with a total of 1,190 existing single-family homes changing hands for a 30 percent increase over the 915 homes sold last year. The market’s median sales price increased 18 percent to $162,600; a year ago, it was $137,900.
• One benefit to being the mayor of a Super Bowl city: you don’t have to worry about buying a meal come Super Bowl week. There’s a host of charity breakfasts and luncheons dying for Mayor John Peyton’s attention. Most plead with him just to make an appearance. The Hubbard House went so far as to remind Peyton that their luncheon has some family ties to Peyton’s staff. The luncheon will honor former football great Pat Summerall, father of Susie Wiles, Peyton’s communications chief.
• We’re getting a new vision physician downtown. Southern Eye Institute of Jacksonville, has purchased a 5,700 square foot office in the Legal Arts Building at 720 North Ocean St.