milhouseluigi November 23, 20071

I grew up at Vic Pk and St Clair which is the border b/w East York and Scarborough. I'm currently in London, UK.

I think every major city in the world has a "Scarborough" in it.

NYC has the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Queens. London has the South and East-Ends. Toronto has Regent Park, Jane-Finch, and Malvern/Scarborough.

There are two ways to fix Scarlem:

1. Ignore it. Adopt the NYC + London models. Create a city of haves and have nots. Let the poor live on the outskirts. Make sure the rich don't venture into these neighbourhoods. Make sure the rich drive up the prices of the urban core (i.e. line up for condos for week's at a time)...and live in complete bliss.

2. Elect a mayor that fights the core of the problem: Creating opportunities for youths to learn and work. Demolish the strip malls, build parks, give tax subsidies to get corporations to move into the suburbs. IF WE WANT AN NFL team...get them to build a stadium in scarborough. We have so much land in the GTA for massive infrastructure growth, yet development is so slow in the GTA (i.e. waterfront development ideas that are 20 years old at least).

Prediction:

Solution 1 will be followed. Toronto will follow NYC and London and become a city of haves and have nots. Partisans will argue declining murder rates, and overall decline in crime. This problem will boil for 20 years, then at that point, these 20 year old gang members will be on the street, begging, or in prison, or dead. Problem solved.

JS November 27, 20072

What an incredibly dull article. Clearly, Toronto Life is running short on ideas this issue. Long-winded, lazy, poorly researched, but worst of all, it reports nothing new in its analysis, nor its perspective. In other words, it’s the same old chili fry reported a thousand times over by others living in downtown Toronto. Naturally, the usual suspects are to blame:

· The automobile – an evil invention
· The concept of Suburbia itself (aka Scarborough, in this case) is therefore evil
· “Scarborough” is the same everywhere (the entire landmass is nearly the size of Mississauga is all the same of course) and has all the youth crime, or, is at least to blame for most of it
· Immigrants can be reasonably blamed for all the world’s problems – the rationale being, the higher the immigration rate, the more trouble to come, right??
· Multiculturalism (even going as far as stating a scientific basis for endorsing segregation – gotta like that one, eh?)

We therefore selectively and narrowly report information that fits the framework:
· Based on 2 or 3 youth crime incidents, we can therefore conclusively determine what the future for Scarborough (and Toronto) holds. Hey, sure thing. With this logic, we should predict at least one shooting death outside of Sam’s downtown this Christmas. Oh wait, that’s downtown – that was only an anomaly.
· Let’s not talk about booming suburban areas, the Mississaugas, the Etobicokes, the North Yorks and yes, Scarborough neighbourhoods where crime rates are far lower than many downtown neighborhoods. Yes, Scarborough.
· We only report on high rates of new Canadians in Scarborough, even though this pattern can be found across the entire GTA.

And the list goes on. It’s a shame that highly educated people can continue to believe and buy into these stereotypes. What’s worse, is that others not knowing any better will read articles like this and accept it as professional journalism.

Oh well, life goes on.

seanmcmanus November 29, 20073

This article has no focus.

Was it about dysfucntional cities and their suburbs? Gangs? Immigration? Changing patterns of industrialization and employement?

The are no outright lies in the article, just a lot of half-truths, and no balance or counterpoints.

Read James Kunstler's "The Geography of Nowhere" of you want to know about why/who/when/how suburbs were created at the start of the century and how they have evolved. (The writer is correct about the automobile defining early suburban planning).

As far as gangs and other tell-tale signs of youth gone wild, what about the club district downtown? There is graffiti all over Toronto, even in Forest Hill and the Beach, and I am pretty sure people get stabbed and shot in every area of the city and its 'burbs.

What about the good stuff that happens in Scarborough? Awesome take out food from every nation is mere minutes away. Beautiful gardens, world calls zoo, and you can find deer around the Bluff and Rouge Valley.

Don Gillmor needs to get out more.

This article is like comparing the writing in "MacLean's Magazine" when what is required is "The Economist".

D- for Don Gillmor

JS November 30, 20074

SeanMcManus: You hit the nail on the head - the article has no focus. Lots of different points, issues, crimes, urban planning, immigration, corruption, etc. which the author then conveniently sticks a label on: “Scarborough" (or the other slurs he made up which I will not mention). If there's any alienation going on, it's the author's alienation of Scarborough.

I would really love to see a credible writer write a positive article about Scarborough. Just one. But no one wants to see that side, it seems.

Personally, I think Scarborough is the final frontier to Toronto, and the future of Toronto really lies here - in a good sense. Huge population growth, geographically huge, big lots, undervalued real estate, and still part of Toronto. We have lakefront trails, beachfront, marina, natural beauty abounds, (yes I've seen deer in my backyard as well!), and yes, you can't beat our ethnic takeout and many of our great eateries (been to Mandalay? The Black Dog?)

Was “suburbia” based on the automobile? Yeah, sure it was. But any observation of TTC usage will notice that Scarborough residents are also huge transit users, and that’s what makes it incredibly frustrating that higher-order transit just doesn’t seem to materialize in probably the largest geographical part of Toronto with proven, dedicated transit users. It takes me 1 hour 45 minutes one-way to take transit home from downtown to Scarborough. You can get to Whitby in half the time, seriously. The Sheppard subway line should have gone all the way to the Scarborough Town Centre, since we would have diverted traffic away from the Danforth and the overcrowded Bloor/Yonge interchange which is beyond capacity already and is out of options. It is very easy to prove where the ridership is coming from and we would have filled every Sheppard Subway train and supported our City Centre at the same time. Not only that, we would have effectively extended our sustainable transit corridor, thereby raising property values substantially across large geographic tracts of the city and thereby contributing to greater tax revenue for the City. Higher-order transit raises property values, that’s proven without a doubt.

seanmcmanus November 30, 20075

Re: JS-->yes I have been to both Mandalay and Black Dog many times; great food & drink at both.

As for transit, the original plan was for a subway to go where the LRT is now, but the defunct Ontario Gov. agency "Urban Transport Development Corp" (or UTDC) that made the LRT wanted a showcase so Scarborough got the insufficent LRT. Which was suppsoed to goto Markham and Sheppard. Which was where the Sheppard Subway was also supposed to go.

I think the most positive thing for Scarborough (besides better writers at "Toronto Life") would be to get rid of Mayor Miller and elect someone from ANY of the former boroughs. Has Miller ever set foot east of Vic Park? Has he had the pleasure of using the TTC (mostly buses) to get from Scarbrough to downtown, or ever worse, to some place in North York?

Outside of voting the thing individuals can do is stop promoting the stereotypes, support local Scarborough businesses, and where possible, influnce/attract jobs and employers to locate here. Jobs jobs jobs

JS December 4, 20076

I agree that landing more jobs in Scarborough is KEY. Too bad city council just overturned a large tract of land's zoning to residential. Or at least mixed-use would be better.

E.g. the Metrogate development at Kennedy south of Sheppard - there's a great development - condos, a new office tower and both GO transit and TTC (higher-order) transit within the community itself. Great concept, it'll do well (no, I'm not an investor there).

I think great higher-order transit is the "cure" for many of Scarborough's real and perceived ills. Having a subway at the Malvern Town Centre would hugely boost property values which would attract a different kind of people, give local residents better access to jobs, etc. Businesses would consider locating there, since it's easily accessible by anyone, etc.

Successful suburbs have all made it on infrastructure. Think about it, Mississauga has the airport, QEW and the 403. North York has Yonge Street and the DVP. Richmond Hill has the 404. Etobicoke has Highway 427, 401 and QEW, and so on.

I'm not so sure potential mayors from other burbs would do anything different - Scarborough is not a priority to them, either (Etobicoke councillors continually complain that Scarborough gets too money as it is). What really gets me is that we ARE their solution - boost up production and property values of us, and all of Toronto reaps the rewards in the form of greater revenue.

What are the solutions? Grass roots solutions are what's left on the table. Organize your neighbourhood. Get connected to other like-minded individuals and local organizations. Brainstorm some local solutions which are feasible. Work with your city concillors to get things done. And, yes, quit the trash talk.

JennG January 16, 20087

I agree with the other comments critical of this article for not delving below the very lightest of media coverage.

My husband and I moved to Scarborough just as the city was amalgamating, attracted by the much lower housing prices than our former Beaches area apartment. We are now in our second home in Guildwood, which is one of Scarborough's little hidden gems. (Also home to the derelict Guild Inn, surrounded by one of Toronto's neatest parks - the park is city-owned).

Since moving there I've gotten out of the habit of locking my car all the time, because it really is this quiet tree-laden area. We're actually very close to Galloway & Kingston Rd/Lawrence Ave which has to be one of the more notorious areas. But like much of Toronto, 6 blocks can make a huge difference. I'm disappointed the Toronto Life article didn't even try to make that point.

My neighbours are mostly retirees, but the people moving in are definitely young families - mid-level professional - IT guys, teachers, chiropractors, etc. (I meet 'em through my moms group, Scarborough moms.) There's more space for your buck out here. I wouldn't be surprised if the lakeside communities in particular start to get a bit more attention once Leslieville prices hit Beaches-level. Although there is some of East York to go first I guess.

There's a fair amount here for the young family - AMAZING parks and trails - the new waterfront trail at the foot of Port Union is beautiful, as is the trail that starts about at the foot of the Guild Inn and goes east along the lake. Bluffers Park provides waterfront recreation too. I don't think Scarborough is underfunded in many areas; we have some beautiful recreation facilities and libraries – completely unsurrounded by gangs. Eventually people are going to notice.

Transit is definitely a huge issue - the GO provides a good way to get downtown but for me to get to work at Yonge and Sheppard via TTC is ludicrously full of transfers and takes well over an hour and a half. The RT is worse than useless, especially in the winter. The car culture definitely was an influence in building Scarborough, but lack of resources into transit infrastructure seems to me to be keeping it there.

I do think that Scarborough lacks a cohesive "cultural life" - probably a holdover from pre-amalgamation priorities, and also because Scarborough residents are diverse, and go downtown for a lot of activities. I think this is gradually changing though. There is a sort of pottery/painting/memoir arts life here that has some neat facilities at the Cedar Ridge creative centre, and although it's a little staid, it's positioned to be a nice hub for artisan work.

I was glad to see one of Scarborough's gems, the Black Dog Pub, in one of the last Toronto Life restaurant guides and I hope they'll continue to cover some of the great &/or quirky eateries we have out here.

immanuellanzaderas January 18, 20088

I was so relieved to read the comments, after reading such a dreadfully written, and woefully prejudiced article. Really, it read more like an article about gangs and suburban planning failures than an article about anything particular to Scarborough. And that line about Scarborough being white-bread back when Toronto was yearning for ethnic diversity, but now being insanely multicultural now that the concept is under attack. Come on! I grew up in Scarborough, and can tell you for a fact that it is and always was diverse because of its affordability and welcoming of community-creating efforts from all ethnicities and races.

This article just reeks of yuppie, downtown, WASP snobbery. I'm a grad student moving back to Toronto in the summer, and I thought about getting a subscription to Toronto Life, but it's clearly written with a different demographic in mind - the ignorant brats from North Toronto or downtown private schools who like to have their worst fears and suspicions confirmed through sloppy journalism.