• The only restaurant in the stadium area is now open only for events. The Amsterdam Sky Cafe between the arena and the baseball park won’t reopen until Friday evening’s hockey game. There’s a big “For Sale” sign on the building, too.
• Lunchtime business in the lower Talleyrand Ave. area is usually divided between Ann’s and Russ Doe’s, sandwich shops only a block apart, but things have been different this week. Ann’s has become a temporary Super Bowl souvenir store so Russ Doe’s had double the customers.
• Remarkably, the stadium is almost back to normal with crews taking down the equipment brought in for the game. “It’s a 20 percent rule,” said a worker. “However long it took to set up, it takes 20 percent of that time to take it down.” One thing is the same: the scoreboards still read “Patriots 24, Eagles 21.”
• JCCI will study downtown parks starting Feb. 17. There are seven subsequent meetings to prepare a report.
• Spohrer, Wilner, Maxwell and Matthews law firm has found a novel way to raise literacy and funding for Learn to Read, Inc., a local literacy advocate group. The firm will sponsor a Letters for Literacy Scrabble Soiree, scheduled for St. John’s Episcopal Cathedral on March 3. Each table of six to eight players pays $500 to get in, individuals pay $50. Participants can buy extra consonents for $5 a piece. Vowels will cost you $10.
• The Alhambra brings back “Cabaret” starting Friday. It’s the first time since 1988 for the venerable musical, which is making a small-theatre comeback after being reworked a few years ago.
• There hasn’t been much good news for the Spence family since The Shipyards project went awry and a grand jury started poking around, but here’s some: the family’s company, ICS Logistics, was recognized for having shipped a million tons of frozen chicken through the local port since 1966. Chicken? It’s a big item in Russia.
• The Clarion Hotel sponsored Tuesday’s Chamber of Commerce Government Affairs Committee meeting and had a drawing for a door prize. Business cards were drawn and the winner is ... Loretta Draper! Uh...who’s that? City Council candidate John Draper sheepishly accepted the box of chocolates. Loretta is Mrs. Draper and he grabbed her cards instead of his. More, page 4.
• Supervisor of Elections candidate Andy Johnson says he wants one inch of City Notes to let everyone know that he’s the “Anti-Winnebago candidate,” claiming that other candidates want to buy an RV to roam the city in an effort to boost voting. “A pickup truck, maybe,” he said. ‘No Winnebago.”
• The out-of-town transportation companies almost created a monster Super Bowl week problem by telling drivers to get their directions from internet sites such as mapquest.com. Those sites didn’t know the Main Street Bridge was closed, which could have created big jams for, in particular, the downtown VIP parties with guests coming from the beach. Local meeting planners have a network and passed the correct word.
• Yes, that was Jacksonville Airport Authority board chair Jim McCollum at the airport at 4 a.m. on the morning after the game. He was a volunteer.
• The Jacksonville Women Lawyers Association’s February luncheon at River City Brewing Co. this Thursday will feature a judicial forum. Federal Judge Timothy Corrigan will act as moderator over a panel of 10 local state and county judges.
• Two items likely to be added to the Florida Department of Transportation’s improvement program: new grating and painting on the Mathews Bridge.
• Visit the website for Bennington, PA. and you’ll notice something familiar. Their slogan, “Bennington: Where Pennsylvania Begins,” sounds a bit like ours.