[PHOTO] An advertisement for Victoria Day fireworks at the convenience store

At my local corner store, at Dufferin and Dupont.

[URBAN NOTE] "Thank You: The Rob Ford Crackstarter Has Met Its Goal"

Gawker's John Cook announces the success of the Crackstarter fundraising enterprise.

(I found this via the National Post's article.)

The Crackstarter is now closed to further donations. We pulled in a total of $201,254 from 8,388 people. I haven't contacted Indiegogo, the service that hosted the campaign, yet to investigate precisely when we get the money, in what format, etc. (As I write this, the Indiegogo web site is not cooperating with my attempts to get that info.) I do know that Indiegogo and PayPal extract certain fees before turning the proceeds over to us; we will post an update announcing the total amount that has been released to us as soon as we get it.

As for the purchase: We are working on it. As we noted before the campaign concluded, we lost contact with the people who have custody of the video. I updated the Indiegogo campaign site yesterday morning to reiterate that there had been no movement on that front, and am repeating it here right now. You won't hear anything more from us about our attempts to get the video for some time. This will be a very delicate transaction. If the people who are in possession of the video are reading this: Please get in touch with our mutual friend, or with me at john@gawker.com. We did what you asked.

[URBAN NOTE] Does every country have a "San Francisco"?

France has just carried out its first gay marriage, in the southern French city of Montpellier
that--as we are told in Agence France-Presse's article--is apparently the San Francisco of France.

International media have begun converging on the "French San Francisco" where the country's first official gay wedding is due to take place Wednesday amid tight security and fears of protests after months of opposition that saw tens of thousands take to the streets.

Vincent Autin, 40, and Bruno Boileau, 30, will exchange vows at the city hall in the southern city of Montpellier at 1530 GMT in the presence of hundreds of guests, including the Socialist government's spokeswoman Najat Vallaud-Belkacem.

Vallaud-Belkacem said she was attending the ceremony as a private citizen and not a state representative7, after the government backed away from sending officials fearing it would be accused of politicising the event.

[. . .]

Opponents have vowed to protest at the marriage in Montpellier, known as the "French San Francisco" for its gay-friendly reputation, and authorities have called in up to 100 police, with another 80 in reserve, to provide security.

"It is an exceptional event and we want everything to go as smoothly as possible," said Frederic Loiseau of the local prefect's office.

San Francisco is the origin of the trope, used in reference to cities of importance--not necessarily in the first tier of a country's urban hierarchy, maybe even not the second, but a regional centre nonetheless--with a tradition of special liberalism. I've heard Cologne (German Köln) described as Germany's San Francisco--see JD Van Zyl's 2010 Pink News article and on the talk page for Wikitravel's profile of the city.

Does this work for every country? I can't think of Canada having a San Francisco-type city--Toronto and Montréal and Vancouver are too large. Can the trope work only in countries of a certain size, which have the population base necessary for a diversified urban hierarchy that provides relatively small groups with convenient potential niches?

[URBAN NOTE] "Heavy rainfall leaves Toronto thoroughfares washed out"

The scale and impact of the heavy rainfall last night in Toronto is described by The Globe and Mail's Timothy Appleby. I got home at 11 o'clock and experienced only a consistent warm rain. I suppose that the accumulation of this consistent rain, or some late night intensification, was responsible for the deterioration of the system.

(I did have a couple of flower pots flooded out.)

One of Toronto’s busiest commuter arteries has reopened in both directions after being shut down overnight by some of the severest flooding ever seen on the roadway.

The Don Valley Parkway was closed at around 5 a.m., shortly before the beginning of the morning rush hour, which brings tens of thousands of drivers into Toronto from points east.

The southbound lanes were back to normal by around 9:30 a.m., and the northbound lanes reopened about half an hour later.

All lanes between the Gardiner Expressway and the Bayview/Bloor exit were closed after the Don River overflowed its banks, leaving behind water up to a metre deep, and motorists scrambling for alternate routes.

The waters are now subsiding and a cleanup of the debris left behind is under way, police said.

In all, Toronto and the area north received up to 60 millimetres of rain before the downpour eased at around 6 a.m.

[BRIEF NOTE] On Henry Morgentaler and 85 Harbord Street

Henry Morgentaler, a Canadian doctor who gained international recognition (and ignominy) for his fight for safe and legal abortion in Canada, died today.

Morgentaler emerged in 1969 as one of Canada's most controversial figures when he broke the law at the time, and opened the country's first abortion clinic in Montreal.

Over the next two decades, he would be heralded as a hero by some, and called a murderer by others as he fought to change Canada's abortion laws.

Morgentaler, who was born in Lodz, Poland, and came to Canada after the Second World War, emerged in 1967 as an advocate for the right of women to have abortion on demand — a polarizing issue in Canada. His abortion clinic in Montreal was followed by more clinics across the country.

"His work changed the legal landscape in Canada, and eventually led to the 1988 landmark Supreme Court of Canada decision that gave women the right to obtain abortion care," said Vicki Saporta, president of the National Abortion Federation.

In August 2008, on the occasion of Morgentaler's successful (if controversial) nomination for membership in the Order of Canada, I posted a picture taken on Toronto's Harbord Street, near the University of Toronto campus, of 85 Harbord Street, the address that once hosted his clinic.

Now, in The Globe and Mail's words.

The story of this old Annex Victorian semi, among the storefronts on the south of Harbord, really begins on June 15, 1983, when Henry Morgentaler opened an abortion clinic. It was subjected to protests and pickets, and victories and defeats - for both sides of the debate. The drama might have ended in 1988, when the Supreme Court ruled that freestanding clinics were legal, but the rallies continued, reaching 3,000 strong. Harbord Street Cafe, at No. 87, closed shop, its windows papered over. A sign for The Way Inn took its place. The Toronto Women's Bookstore moved down the street. Then on Victoria Day weekend in 1992, an explosion by arsonists blew the wall out at No. 85. No one was ever charged. A small apartment is there now, next to Ms. Emma Designs at No. 87. Earlier this week, Dr. Morgentaler was named to the Order of Canada.

(85 Harbord Street is small. Look to the left edge of the photo. I thought it was hiding from me at the time I took the photo.)

[LINK] "Canada expelling Eritrean diplomat for using consulate for fundraising"

The National Post's Stewart Bell reports that the Canadian government has reacted to the Eritrean government's continued shaking down members of the Eritrean diaspora for money to fund the Eritrean military by expelling the Eritrean consul-general (located in Toronto, apparently). Good.

As recently as Monday, the head of the mission, Consul Semere Ghebremariam O. Micael, denied that. “I was collecting before and I stopped collecting,” he insisted in a telephone interview. “It’s not a problem.”

But the evidence showed otherwise and on Wednesday the Canadian government ordered Mr. Micael’s expulsion over his persistent efforts to use the consulate to violate a United Nations military embargo.

[. . .]

“I think it had to happen. The consulate was warned and ignored the warning,” said David Matas, senior legal counsel to the Eritrean-Canadian Human Rights Group, which had complained to Foreign Affairs and the RCMP about the consulate.

While pro-government Eritrean-Canadians have paid willingly, others called it extortion and the UN has reported that “threats, harassment and intimidation against the individual concerned or relatives in Eritrea” were used to extract tax payments.

“The people who were being victimized were Canadian dual nationals and permanent residents,” said Mr. Matas, a Winnipeg lawyer. “It was essential that the government of Canada stand up for Canadians being victimized on Canadian soil by a foreign government.”

[LINK] "Tourists Check Out a Newly Affordable Japan"

Facebook's Courtney linked to Miho Inada's Wall Street Journal article describing an unexpected consequence of Abenomics: tourism in Japan, by Japanese and by foreigners, has risen.

With a dollar now fetching ¥100—up from less than ¥80 in November—foreign visitors have surged, while Japanese curb overseas travel and do more sightseeing at home.

The number of foreign visitors to Japan in March, even before the yen's latest tumble, was up 26% from a year earlier to 857,000, the highest for a March since 1964, when the Japan National Tourism Organization started taking statistics.

The weaker currency has helped Japan's tourism sector overcome a number of setbacks in the past two years. The 2011 nuclear-power-plant accident scared away visitors worried about radiation. Heightened territorial tensions with Beijing have since last year led to a sharp drop in tourists from China, once the fastest-growing source of visitors to Japan. While Chinese travelers continue to shun Japan, visitors from the rest of Asia, Europe, and Russia have more than made up for the gap.

In Ginza, Tokyo's high-end shopping district, a group of 34 tourists from Sweden was riding a large tour bus after shopping on a recent afternoon.

"Japan is selected as the most desired holiday place by the Swedish," said tour guide Magnus Carlsson. "It's a hot destination, which used to be too expensive. But it's now cheaper."

Hiroshi Saito, a tourism-promotion official in Ishikawa, said his prefecture saw a 45% increase in the number of foreign visitors to its famous Kenrokuen garden for the first three months of this year, compared with the same period a year earlier.

[URBAN NOTE] The Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area, now?

As people in the area of southern Ontario lurch towards integrated mass transit systems, no longer are people referring to the Greater Toronto Area. Now, it's the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area. This CBC Hamilton article demonstrates the term's use.

Ontario's transportation agency is recommending new fees that will total about $500 for an average household to raise $2-billion annually to fund public transit in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area, a project called The Big Move.

[. . .]

“The Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA) is facing a gridlock crisis that is costing our economy an estimated $6 billion a year and is compromising the quality of life for residents,” said Ontario transportation minister Glen Murray in a statement. “If not addressed, this problem will continue to grow as our population increases and further burden our economy.”

Murray said the Ontario government “accepts the guiding principles of the Metrolinx funding strategy.”

The shift in nomenclature from GTA to GTHA isn't just a matter of appealing to Hamilton voters. It does make a certain amount of sense, inasmuch as Hamilton is a county-level division of Ontario to the west of (though bordering upon) the Greater Toronto Area, and moreover has a long history of development separate from Toronto that (say) a Mississauga produced by spillover suburban and exurban growth from Toronto lacks. Then again, Mississauga has twice the population of Hamilton, and Brampton isn't far behind, either.