Scarborough deserves respect, fairness
Subway fight a lightning rod for feelings of alienation by residents

thestar.com
June 30, 2016
By Bob Hepburn

This is not a column about the controversial $3-billion Scarborough subway extension, which critics want to kill and replace with a cheaper light-rail system.

Rather, it’s a column about respect and fairness for a part of Toronto that has received a bad rap for decades.

Lost in history is the name of the person who first coined the term “Scarberia,” smearing the eastern suburb and its 600,000 residents seemingly forever.

While it may seem harmless and funny to some, the snarky term has usually been linked with unwarranted associations with high crime rates, ugly strip malls, lousy restaurants, crowded schools, outdated hospitals as well as grimy factories and warehouses.

Worse, “Scarberia” is used to imply that Scarborough residents are culturally challenged, uncool and out-of-touch compared to people in other parts of Toronto, especially in the downtown core.

For years, proud Scarborough residents have raged against the “Scarberia” image in the firm belief they aren’t treated fairly when it comes to everything from transit to parks and schools.

Occasionally that seething anger erupts into the open - with stunning force.

That’s what happened in the 2010 mayoral race when Rob Ford swept the area by a huge margin over George Smitherman, his downtown challenger. Ford campaigned on a wildly successful theme that boiled down to: “I love you; I hear your pain; and I’m going to take care of you.”

And it’s happening again today, although few will admit it, as the fight plays out over the Scarborough subway extension.

Indeed, the current subway debate has become a lightning rod for this alienation felt in Scarborough.

Fuelling the feeling among Scarborough residents that the “downtown elites” look down their noses at them is a steady stream of anti-subway criticism from downtown city councillors, bloggers, Twitter-world typists, television talking heads and in columns, editorials and cartoons in local newspapers.

“There is anger and a feeling of being left out and of people standing in the way of our being able to get our fair share,” Councillor Glenn De Baeremaeker (Ward 38, Scarborough Centre) said in an interview. “This is not just about a subway; it’s about letting us into the family.”

De Baeremaeker supports the subway extension to the Scarborough Town Centre, like every elected local, provincial and federal politician from Scarborough except councillor Paul Ainslie. “On the subway file, there is an overpowering feeling of the need for fairness,” De Baeremaeker added.

Councillor Norm Kelly agrees, noting it can take up to two hours for Scarborough residents to get downtown on public transit.

On the subway, Scarborough residents see a new line going to the Vaughan city centre and a proposed extension of the Yonge line to Richmond Hill and ask why, if the subway is okay for these 905 regions, isn’t it okay for Scarborough.

For them, it’s just doesn’t seem fair.

Adding to their sense of being treated unfairly is everything from parks to art festivals and bike lanes.

Why hasn’t Luminato, the city-sponsored arts festival, ever held an event in Scarborough? Why does the city spend countless dollars to create Sugar Beach on the waterfront at the foot of Jarvis St., but hasn’t put much money into Bluffer’s Park since it was created in the 1950s? Why isn’t there a decent waterfront trail in Scarborough while the city operates one from the eastern Beach area into Etobicoke? Why does the central campus of The Scarborough Hospital have the oldest operating rooms in the entire province?

Why do guides of top Toronto restaurants fail to list a single place east of Victoria Park Ave. although an international food critic last year declared the area “the best ethnic food suburb” he had ever seen? Why does the city fund huge fireworks displays at Ashbridge’s Bay and Mel Lastman Square in North York, but only gives a pittance for similar events in Scarborough.

The list is endless - and the resentment strong.

Kelly, who has represented the area as an alderman, federal MP and city councillor for more than 30 years, says that despite efforts to improve the image of the area, the condescending perception of “Scarberia” remains strong.

Like De Baeremaeker, he argues it’s a case of mistaken identity, that while Scarborough has some of the poorest areas in the city, it actually has a lower crime rate than the rest of the city, has beautiful and safe neighbourhoods and a huge, ethnically diverse population that gets along together just fine.

Scarborough residents are generally proud of their area and feel the rest of the city “just doesn’t get it,” Kelly added.

Indeed, it is time the rest of Toronto “gets” Scarborough - and maybe starts to treat it with the respect and fairness it deserves.