Jarrek
Active Member
The first article is just such a better read. So it must be true.
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- Thread starter King of Kensington
- Start date
rpgr
Active Member
The first article is just such a better read. So it must be true.
As long as you don't confuse well written prose or poetry to actually mean good content. Shakespeare may write excellent poetry but lets face it, his stories are the equivalent of pop-culture angst for his time period. Just because the lines are good, doesn't mean the story or content is well written (see the Bible / "Holy Scriptures" and Shakespeare).
As others have said, a section of Scarborough taken for the whole is a bad assumption. For instance, there has been quite a few murders all along Shepperd in the past few weeks. Does that mean Shepperd is on the verge of being called murder lane?
scarberiankhatru
Senior Member
If by quite a few you mean the single murder along Sheppard (excluding Malvern).
Jarrek
Active Member
That comment was not meant to be taken seriously. I thought the Smiley gave it away.
rpgr
Active Member
Ahh, I see, well you need to use the sarcastic smiley or "roll eye" or stick out tongue smiley. This one ---- >
or The big grin
smiley denotes extreme happiness but you probably thought it meant snickering.
Jarrek
Active Member
The problems with Scarborough lie in what I believe are high concentration pockets of high density low income subsidized housing, and poor urban planning. Scarborough is the city with the largest percentage of these problem areas. Etobicoke for example has them too, but in much lesser numbers and dispersed geographically though distance. It's also interesting to note how its proximity to the airport and major transportation links has allowed Etobicoke's industrial and manufacturing areas to flourish, whereas they have failed in Scarborough.
rpgr
Active Member
Well there was one around Bayview, another around Birchmount and another by Markham. It's not exactly on Shepperd but the news report them on Shepperd.
scarberiankhatru
Senior Member
There was one at Bathurst, not Bayview, and the one at Markham counts as a Malvern murder. This isn't exactly a lot of murders. Check out some homicide maps of American cities to see some really dangerous corridors.
If we divide Scarborough into rough quadrants, the NW/Agincourt has 3 murders this year so far, the NE/Malvern has 6, the SE/West Hill has 6, and the SW/Scarborough has 10. I've always believed that if 'Greater Agincourt' and 'Greater West Hill' (and the areas near the Bluffs, of course) were separated from Scarborough, they'd be middle to upper middle class areas with reasonably high property values and very little crime.
Subsidized housing isn't that big a deal in Scarborough - Jane & Finch, Flemingdon Park, etc. are in North York and are worse than anything in Scarborough. The much bigger problem in Scarborough is the generally cheap housing. When you have such a huge swath of cheap housing, you're going to get a greater amount of less than savoury folk living in these houses. "Add" poor transit and limited services/jobs, add demographic profiles that result in more gang activity, etc., all under one common banner called "Scarborough," and you're gonna get a mess.
In Etobicoke, Rexdale is countered by the larger Kingsway area, but the 10% of Scarborough that is nice is overwhelmed by the 90% that is not-so-nice, and this 90% is almost entirely lower middle to middle class housing that is cheap, cheap, cheap.
Your point about industry is very interesting: while the airport surely played a role, much of the industry in Scarborough is in random little zones all over the place, not particularly close to a highway...flourish vs failure may be a bit of an exaggeration.
If we divide Scarborough into rough quadrants, the NW/Agincourt has 3 murders this year so far, the NE/Malvern has 6, the SE/West Hill has 6, and the SW/Scarborough has 10. I've always believed that if 'Greater Agincourt' and 'Greater West Hill' (and the areas near the Bluffs, of course) were separated from Scarborough, they'd be middle to upper middle class areas with reasonably high property values and very little crime.
Subsidized housing isn't that big a deal in Scarborough - Jane & Finch, Flemingdon Park, etc. are in North York and are worse than anything in Scarborough. The much bigger problem in Scarborough is the generally cheap housing. When you have such a huge swath of cheap housing, you're going to get a greater amount of less than savoury folk living in these houses. "Add" poor transit and limited services/jobs, add demographic profiles that result in more gang activity, etc., all under one common banner called "Scarborough," and you're gonna get a mess.
In Etobicoke, Rexdale is countered by the larger Kingsway area, but the 10% of Scarborough that is nice is overwhelmed by the 90% that is not-so-nice, and this 90% is almost entirely lower middle to middle class housing that is cheap, cheap, cheap.
Your point about industry is very interesting: while the airport surely played a role, much of the industry in Scarborough is in random little zones all over the place, not particularly close to a highway...flourish vs failure may be a bit of an exaggeration.
rpgr
Active Member
I was talking about Shepperd in general though.. not Shepperd in Scarborough
scarberiankhatru
Senior Member
There's been about 9 murders within 1km of Sheppard's 34km length...but most of these 9 can be shuffled off to the Jane & Finch or Malvern zones. The 'Sheppard corridor' runs through North York, cleansing any bad rap the media might try to give it. Finch & Anywhere suffers because of Jane & Finch, but Eglinton, which is pretty sketchy overall, benefits from Yonge & Eglinton.
Blue
New Member
Is Scarborough really that bad? I haven't been to Toronto in years, but it's just hard to imagine it's as bad as the article says....
allabootmatt
Senior Member
Dunno mate, never been east of Vic Park.
Just kidding. But I really don't know Scarb well at all. Generally, though, the Toronto media have a habit of exaggerating crime stories, in particular, and descriptions of attendant poverty/racial tension. No doubt Scarborough (and a number of other parts of the city) have their problems, but it's certainly nothing on the level of the rougher parts of virtually any US city, big or small.
Just kidding. But I really don't know Scarb well at all. Generally, though, the Toronto media have a habit of exaggerating crime stories, in particular, and descriptions of attendant poverty/racial tension. No doubt Scarborough (and a number of other parts of the city) have their problems, but it's certainly nothing on the level of the rougher parts of virtually any US city, big or small.
lordmandeep
Banned
its been blown out of poporation..
It is like once you go east of Victoria Park that you are in a whole different city. It looks really much the same...
It is like once you go east of Victoria Park that you are in a whole different city. It looks really much the same...
billonlogan
Active Member
My parents neighbourhood in Scarborough, they had no break-ins, house and auto, for over 10 years during the 80's. Even the cops were impressed. Then a low cost housing complex opened up down the road and a year later another went up. Break-ins and vandalism soon became more regular. During a public meeting, the cops pointed fingers and warned residents to take precautions. Some of the worst offenders in the complex were soon arrested and kicked out. But more of the same took their place. My mother won't even answer the door anymore unless she knows who it is. Unfortunately, the small minority of thugs have sullied the name of Scarborough with shootings and wonton violence.
DENTROBATE54
Banned
Wow, sounds like the only way to improve the lot of all Scarborough residents is to distinguish a few lucky neighbourhoods by their class/ethnic homogeneosity. The "Us" vs. "Them" debate never ceases to amaze me.
Looks can be deceiving. If better social infrastructures we're implemented in the east instead of a political unilateral fixation on 905 implosion and downtown core revitaliztion then the GTA as a whole would be an equally good place to work and live on all counts.