I would suggest as with many above that these things are cyclical.
The largest chunks of Scarborough, south of the 401 and west of roughly Markham Rd. were built out between 1940-1965.
That housing was first home to veterans and their young families, post WWII and created a fairly idyllic 50's vision of the place.......where the Royal family was there to open the Golden Mile and later the enclosed Eglinton Square.
There was lots of industry (GM had a van plant where the large Cineplex and associated plaza now site on Eglinton).
Broadly the area was seen as cleaner, newer, more futuristic (yes)...... and of course family-friendly.
The families that moved in in 1965, at lets say age 25 are now 75 years old.
The kids have left long ago, and the grand kids visit now.
Of course there's been turnover in the meantime, but as the typical resident aged, and the neighbourhood style fell out of fashion.....and some of the middle-class jobs dried up and left....
The area fell into relative (not absolute) decline.
Fixed-income, older residents are not typically club goers, those looking for a Whole Foods to shop at, or the like.
They also often moved to the area because of its car orientation, something that was once highly sought after, and never placed a premium on walkability.
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As that older generation passes on, and/or sells, the opportunity for change presents itself.
Clearly not for the entire area at once, as I noted that Scarborough north of the 401 and in the farther east sections has materially different demos, from diff. time periods and so the whole community will not shift as one.
That said.......the shift is already underway, but not yet at a critical-mass stage that will broadly influence public perceptions.
Have a look at the north side of Kingston Road running west from Victoria Park.
Once, mostly bungalows.......not bad, per say, if a tad non-descript....
Just north of a fairly affluent section of Scarborough.....yet you could have been forgiven for not knowing, based on the way Kingston Rd. itself looked.
Today, a couple of condo projects have been completed, but another 3 or so are underway or about to be.
By and large these will add retail to Kingston Rd, created a more attractive and pedestrian-friendly streetscape and be occupied by a greater range of age demographics, including some area empty-nesters will then be freeing up their own houses/streets for a refresh.
Other areas will have greater challenges where there is/was no history of a town centre or mainstreet retail around which to building a community vision/reputation.
But this too can be done, it will require investments like 'Eglinton Connects' combined with some very large scale redevelopments, particularly fronting Eglinton and Lawrence.
I expect you will see some of this........in the years ahead............but we aren't there just yet.
Wait for 2022 or so, with the Crosstown phase 1 completed, and associated streetscape works........then you just need that first developer to pull the trigger and so with a worthy idea to get the dominos
falling.
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Specifically on Malvern its lack of connected-ness to the surrounding area is a problem.......as is that antiquated mini-mall that functions as 'town centre'.
The mall needs to be replaced by something that looks more like Main Street retail, with mid-rises framing the stores and anchored by a decent supermarket.
As to the road grid, I'm not sure how you fix that, at reasonable cost.
My instinct is that Tapscott should be straightened and ended in a T at an extended Sewells; while Sewells should be straighted in the east taking over a portion of the McLevin alignment.
But that is hideously expensive looking, and I'm not sure the return on investment is there. But you need roads that create efficient trips through and to places so that the area feel a part of the larger community.
Perhaps some more modest changes can be made to create that feeling.
