[PHOTO] Charlottetown City Hall

Located at 199 Queen Street, the Romanesque Revival building of Charlottetown City Hall is the heart of urban government in the province's capital.

[BLOG] Some Tuesday links

• James Bow really likes the new Hunger Games movie, Catching Fire. One thing he thinks it does very well is show people caught up in an oppressive system.


• The Dragon's Tales notes that the European Space Agency is facing huge cost overruns with its Ariane 6 rocket.


• io9 shares a chart showing the top 20 metropolitan areas of the United States over time.


• Joe. My. God. observes that seniors who have been staking out tables at a McDonald's in New York City as a place to socialize have agreed to be more considerate.


• Language Log's Victor Mair comments upon a picture of a Taiwanese subway advertisement that makes use of three different scripts.


• Marginal Revolution's Tyler Cowen likes Will Wilkinson's argument about how liberalism is ultimately incompatible with the security state.


• Registan guest blogger Dillorom Abdulloeva writes about domestic violence in Uzbekistan.


• Steve Munro has an open thread about the different ways to travel between Toronto and New York City. What's quickest?


• Supernova Condensate examines the concept of superhabitable planets.


• The Volokh Conspiracy's Ilya Somin argues (after others) that immigration can be a way for people to exercise political freedom, by leaving unjust states.


• Torontoist examines a report on youth violence.


• Towleroad shares the news of the new Spanish cardinal, who thinks that homosexuality is a medically correctible defect.

[URBAN NOTE] "Rob Ford admits to drinking after video from restaurant surfaces"

"Is Rob Ford Speaking Jamaican?" (Watch on YouTube)

From the Toronto Sun::

Mayor Rob Ford admits he was drinking alcohol Monday night just two months after he swore he had a "come to Jesus" moment and given up booze.

Ford's confession came after a new video surfaced online that showed him slurring his words, swearing and complaining about Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair at Steak Queen restaurant in Etobicoke. Just two months earlier, Ford publicly stated he had sworn off drinking after he admitted to smoking crack cocaine while in a "drunken stupor." The mayor's sobriety pledge came after police confirmed they had obtained the video showing Ford smoking crack cocaine.

The mayor arrived at City Hall around 2:15 p.m. on Tuesday and left just after 4:30 p.m. - admitting he was drinking the night before as he left his office.

"Yes, I was," Ford said at City Hall when asked if he was drinking on Monday night. "A little bit, yeah."

"I was with some friends. What I do in my personal life and my personal friends, that's up to me. It has nothing to do with you guys. It's on my own time."

Ford said no repeatedly when he was asked if he did any drugs on Monday night or drove to the restaurant.

"I was there, I met some friends … that's how I speak with some of my friends," he said. "I don't think it was discriminative at all."

He ignored questions about his promise to quit drinking or when he started drinking again.

"That's it," Ford said as he got on the elevator to go to the City Hall parking garage.

From the CBC:

Throughout much of the minute-long video, titled "New Video of Toronto Mayor Rob Ford Drunk, Swearing in Jamaican Patois," Ford attempts to use Jamaican slang, using the word "bumbaclot" — profanity in patois — at least four times.

The mayor admitted he was drinking alcohol. "A little bit, yeah," he told reporters. He had pledged numerous times he does not drink anymore, after revelations in 2013 of his crack use while in office.

When asked if his Jamaican accent was offensive, he said no. "I met some friends. If I speak that way, that's how I speak with some of my friends and no, i don't think it's discriminative at all," he said. "It's my own time."

Ford would not say who drove him to the Steak Queen.

"They're chasing me around five months. They're counter surveillance me. He's hiding here. He's hiding here. F--k off," said Ford in the video, apparently talking about the police surveillance on him and his friend and driver Alexander (Sandro) Lisi in the summer of 2013.

Toward the end of the clip a bystander says, "This guy deserves to be better than Stephen Harper." Ford replies, "I am a straight-up guy. Who goes to TCH, Jane town, and Jane and Finch?"

The video ends with Ford getting takeout food, saying "I'm a straight-up guy," while staff compare him to Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

More later.

[URBAN NOTE] "Second video shows Ford with Lisi at Steak Queen"

From BlogTO:

"FORD was there" (Watch on YouTube)

A second video from Rob Ford's bizarre visit to Etobicoke's Steak Queen restaurant has surfaced on YouTube. This one, apparently taken surreptitiously by another diner at the Rexdale Blvd. hamburger and souvlaki joint, shows Ford seated calmly with a man who appears to be Sandro Lisi, the mayor's former driver.

Lisi, a "close friend" of the mayor, is facing a charge of extortion related to the video of Rob Ford smoking crack cocaine and is currently on bail.

toronto rob fordThough Ford appears to be wearing the same red tie as in the video released earlier today, it's not clear when it was filmed. One of the TV screens shows the logos of the Toronto Raptors and the Philadelphia 76ers. The two teams are due to meet Friday. The specials board at the counter also seem to be a match to the first video.

Perhaps more conclusively, the newspaper in front of the person making the video is open to Mike Strobel's column in this Sunday's edition of the Toronto Sun, meaning it could only have been taken late on Sunday or Monday.

[URBAN NOTE] "If Ford won’t quit, he deserves defeat"

This, the Toronto Sun's editorial, may signal the end of Ford Nation. The Toronto Sun is the populist right-wing tabloid of note in Toronto, after all. Without the Sun's sympathy, what does he have?

Two months ago, Mayor Rob Ford publicly pledged he was done drinking.

On Monday night, he was caught on video appearing to be in a drunken state, mimicking what is colloquially called a Jamaican accent and insulting Police Chief Bill Blair.

Ford has admitted drinking but insists the incident was no big deal and that he was out with friends on his personal time.

But that’s not the issue. The issue is Ford made a public pledge not to drink and then did.

The issue is that Ford has become Ford’s biggest enemy, because he is incapable of doing what he himself said just two months ago was in his own best interest — to stop drinking.

This in the wake of his previous admission that he had smoked crack cocaine — which he lied about for months — while in a “drunken stupor.” And other incidents, where he appeared to be intoxicated in public.

And his own admission, when questioned at city council, that while serving as the chief magistrate of Toronto, he had bought illegal drugs.

Ford has denied he is addicted to alcohol or drugs.

We’re not doctors. We don’t know if he’s an addict.

But we do know he clearly has a serious problem with alcohol, if not drugs, and he’s not going to be able to address it as long as he continues in the high pressure job of mayor.