• New Downtown lunch spot. River City Deli will open Monday at 315 W. Forsyth St. across the street from the BellSouth Building. It’s the former Java Junction location.
• The Growth Management Task Force has produced a final document called “Horizon 2030” and one of the interesting numbers is the Jacksonville population projection. According to the report, there will be 1.1 million people in Jacksonville by 2030, a 19 percent growth from the 2010 projection of 910,562.
• Some of you observant commuters out there may have noticed Ohio’s license plate carries the phrase “Birthplace of Aviation,” even though North Carolina hosted the first powered flight courtesy of the Wright brothers, Orville and Wilbur. Florida Times-Union reporter and Ohio transplant Beth Kormanik explained the apparent contradiction. It seems the Wright brothers planned and built their original aircraft in their Dayton, Ohio bicycle shop. Ohio’s claim has national approval. The U.S. House voted 378-3 in 2003 to approve the “birthplace” designation for the buckeye state.
• Chef Matthew Medure of San Marco eateries Matthew’s and Matthew’s Market was seen Tuesday peeking into 11 E. Forsyth’s empty ground floor retail space. Council member Elaine Brown was at his side.
• The big Folio Beer & Music Festival is set for July 7 from 7-11 p.m. at Alltel Stadium in the West Club section. It’s the mag’s 11th such festival.
• Several of Jacksonville’s biggest developers will get together at the Jacksonville Museum of Modern Art May 23 for an Urban Land Institute meeting. Speakers include Mack Bissette of SRG Homes & Neighborhoods, Cameron Kuhn of Kuhn Companies, Mike Langton of LB Jax Development, Walt O’Shea of Hines and Roger Postlethwaite of LandMar.
• A little known tenet from Business Etiquette 101: When you send a letter to a mayor signifying your intention to pull 800 jobs out of a city, make sure you get the title right. AOL’s letter notifying the mayor’s office of its plans to leave Jacksonville carried the greeting “Dear Judge Peyton.”
• The Jacksonville Center of the Arts is holding a benefit golf tournament June 16 at Windsor Parke. Call 355-5551 for more.
• At Tuesday’s proclamation ceremony, Mayor John Peyton recognized several members of Jacksonville’s Asian-American community by proclaiming May Asian-American month. While posing for a photo with the group, Peyton said, “You guys make me feel tall.”
• Several City Council members staged an impromptu meeting Wednesday morning before the Police Memorial Ceremony and, yes, the meeting was in the sunshine (it was overcast actually), but it wasn’t noticed. Seems they were under the impression the 10: 30 a.m. ceremony started at 10. They spent their time having coffee in front of Farah’s and chatting about things other than City business.