Scarborough, Ontario - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Scarborough is a dissolved municipality within the city of Toronto

Toronto

Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...

, Ontario

Ontario

Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....

, Canada. Geographically, it comprises the eastern part of Toronto. It is bordered on the south by Lake Ontario

Lake Ontario

Lake Ontario is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded on the north and southwest by the Canadian province of Ontario, and on the south by the American state of New York. Ontario, Canada's most populous province, was named for the lake. In the Wyandot language, ontarío means...

, on the west by Victoria Park Avenue

Victoria Park Avenue

Victoria Park Avenue is a major north-south route in eastern Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It marks the border between the Old City of Toronto and Scarborough.-History:Victoria Park Avenue was originally a pioneer road for settlement of Scarborough...

, on the north by Steeles Avenue East

Steeles Avenue

Steeles Avenue is an east-west street that forms the northern city limit of Toronto and the southern limit of York Region, Ontario, Canada. It stretches across the western Greater Toronto Area from Milborough Townline in Halton Region east to the Scarborough-Pickering limit. It runs for within...

, and on the east by the Rouge River

Rouge River (Ontario)

The Rouge River is a two river system. Little Rouge and Rouge River are in the east and the northeast parts of Toronto and begin in the Oak Ridges Moraine in Richmond Hill and Whitchurch-Stouffville...

and the City of Pickering

Pickering, Ontario

Pickering is a city located in Southern Ontario, Canada immediately east of Toronto in Durham Region. It is part of the Greater Toronto Area, the largest metropolitan area in Canada.- Early Period :...

. Initially a collection of rural villages, it has become a diverse urban community. Over 200 years it grew from a township to a city, changing regions to Metropolitan Toronto

Metropolitan Toronto

The Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto was a senior level of municipal government in the Toronto, Ontario, Canada area from 1954 to 1998. It was created out of York County and was a precursor to the later concept of a regional municipality, being formed of smaller municipalities but having more...

in 1954, and eventually amalgamated into the City of Toronto in 1998

Amalgamation of Toronto

The amalgamation of Toronto was the creation of the current political borders of Toronto, Ontario, Canada after amalgamating, annexing, and merging with surrounding municipalities since the 18th century...

. It was named after the English town of Scarborough, North Yorkshire in 1796 by Elizabeth Simcoe

Elizabeth Simcoe

Elizabeth Simcoe was an artist and diarist in colonial Canada. She was the wife of John Graves Simcoe, the first Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada.-Biography:...

, who was inspired by the Scarborough Bluffs

Scarborough Bluffs

The Scarborough Bluffs is an escarpment in Scarborough, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Forming much of the eastern portion of Toronto's waterfront, it is located along the shoreline of Lake Ontario. At its highest point, the escarpment rises above its foot and spans a length of...

which reminded her of white cliffs near her home.

Scarborough has characteristics of a suburb

Suburb

The word suburb mostly refers to a residential area, either existing as part of a city or as a separate residential community within commuting distance of a city . Some suburbs have a degree of administrative autonomy, and most have lower population density than inner city neighborhoods...

of Old Toronto, but retains much of its own character and flavour. Certain neighbourhoods in Scarborough are popular destinations for new immigrants to Canada. As a result, Scarborough is one of the most diverse and multicultural areas of the Greater Toronto Area

Greater Toronto Area

The Greater Toronto Area is the largest metropolitan area in Canada, with a 2006 census population of 5.5 million. The Greater Toronto Area is usually defined as the central city of Toronto, along with four regional municipalities surrounding it: Durham, Halton, Peel, and York...

, being home to various religious groups and places of worship. It includes some of Toronto's popular natural landmarks, such as the Scarborough Bluffs

Scarborough Bluffs

and Rouge Park

Rouge Park

Rouge Park will become an urban national park located along the border of Toronto and Pickering, Ontario, Canada. It will be Canada's first national park within a municipality....

. Scarborough has been declared to be greener than any other part of Toronto.

Etymology

The area was named after Scarborough, North Yorkshire, England by Elizabeth Simcoe

Elizabeth Simcoe

Elizabeth Simcoe was an artist and diarist in colonial Canada. She was the wife of John Graves Simcoe, the first Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada.-Biography:...

, the wife of John Graves Simcoe

John Graves Simcoe

John Graves Simcoe was a British army officer and the first Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada from 1791–1796. Then frontier, this was modern-day southern Ontario and the watersheds of Georgian Bay and Lake Superior...

, the first lieutenant governor

Lieutenant governor

A lieutenant governor or lieutenant-governor is a high officer of state, whose precise role and rank vary by jurisdiction, but is often the deputy or lieutenant to or ranking under a governor — a "second-in-command"...

of Upper Canada

Upper Canada

The Province of Upper Canada was a political division in British Canada established in 1791 by the British Empire to govern the central third of the lands in British North America and to accommodate Loyalist refugees from the United States of America after the American Revolution...

. The bluffs along Scarborough's Lake Ontario

Lake Ontario

shores reminded her of the limestone cliffs in Scarborough, England. On 4 August 1793, she wrote in her diary, "The shore is extremely bold, and has the appearance of chalk cliffs, but I believe they are only white sand. They appeared so well that we talked of building a summer residence there and calling it Scarborough." Before that, the area was named Glasgow

Glasgow

Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...

, after the Scottish community.

Scarborough is often referred to as Scarberia, a portmanteau of Scarborough and Siberia

Siberia

Siberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...

, a reference to its seemingly distant eastern location from downtown Toronto. The word originated sometime in the 1960s and has remained a source of contention ever since. In May 1988, Joyce Trimmer

Joyce Trimmer

Joyce Trimmer was a Canadian politician. She was the first woman mayor of Scarborough, Ontario.Born in London, England, Trimmer emigrated to Toronto with her husband Douglas in 1954, where they settled on the Toronto Islands.Working as a secretary and then a business and typing teacher at...

, who was campaigning to be mayor of the city of Scarborough, said, "The city of Scarborough needs strong leadership if it is to shed its 'Scarberia' image".

History

The first known evidence of people in Scarborough comes from an archaeological site in Fenwood Heights, which has been dated to 8000 BCE. The site contains the remains of a camp of nomad

Nomad

Nomadic people , commonly known as itinerants in modern-day contexts, are communities of people who move from one place to another, rather than settling permanently in one location. There are an estimated 30-40 million nomads in the world. Many cultures have traditionally been nomadic, but...

ic hunters and foragers, and there is no evidence of permanent settlers.

In the 17th century, the area was inhabited by the Seneca

Seneca nation

The Seneca are a group of indigenous people native to North America. They were the nation located farthest to the west within the Six Nations or Iroquois League in New York before the American Revolution. While exact population figures are unknown, approximately 15,000 to 25,000 Seneca live in...

at the village of Ganatsekwyagon, who were later displaced by the Mississaugas

Mississaugas

The Mississaugas are a subtribe of the Anishinaabe-speaking First Nations people located in southern Ontario, Canada. They are closely related to the Ojibwa...

, who were themselves displaced by the British settlers who began to arrive in the late 18th century. After surveying the land in 1793, it was opened to settlement by British subjects with the first issue of land patent

Land patent

A land patent is a land grant made patent by the sovereign lord over the land in question. To make a such a grant “patent”, such a sovereign lord must document the land grant, securely sign and seal the document and openly publish the same to the public for all to see...

s in 1796, although squatters had already been present for a few years. The first settlers were David and Andrew Thomson. They were stonemasons who worked on the first parliament buildings for York. They each built mills. This activity led to the creation of a small village known as the Thomson Settlement. The first post office opened in 1832, in Scarborough Village

Scarborough Village

Scarborough Village is a neighbourhood in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, in the south-central part of the district of Scarborough. Historically, it was one of the earliest settlements in the former Township of Scarborough and was the first region of the township to have its own post office...

.

During the early part of life in Upper Canada

Upper Canada

, local administration and justice was administered by the colonial government. From 1792 to 1841, magistrates were appointed by District Councils. There were four districts in the colony of which Scarborough was part of the Home District. Partly due to a political reorganization that was a result of the Durham Report, Scarborough gained elected representation on the Home District Council. Scarborough elected two councillors.

In 1850, Scarborough was incorporated as a township. After incorporation, Scarborough government was led by a reeve, a deputy-reeve and three councillors, each elected annually. Initially the council met in the village of Woburn

Woburn, Toronto

Woburn, also known as Cedarbrae, is a neighbourhood located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, in the district of Scarborough.-Geography:Woburn is bordered by Highway 401 to the north, Scarborough Golf Club Road and Orton Park Road to the east, the CN Railway tracks to the south, and McCowan Road and...

but it was relocated to Birchcliff in 1922, where most of the population was then located. During the Great Depression

Great Depression

The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...

the local government was on the verge of bankruptcy. The Ontario Municipal Board

Ontario Municipal Board

The Ontario Municipal Board is an independent administrative board, operated as an adjudicative tribunal, in the province of Ontario, Canada...

stepped in and appointed an oversight committee. This managed to prevent the collapse of local government.

The expansion of Toronto in the east, in the 19th century, led to the development of housing stock along the Kingston Road and Danforth Road corridors in Scarborough. This led to the creation of a transit line. In 1893, the Toronto and Scarboro' Electric Railway, Light and Power Company

Toronto and Scarboro' Electric Railway, Light and Power Company

Toronto and Scarboro' Electric Railway, Light and Power Company was established in August 1892 to provide street railway service beyond the then City of Toronto, Ontario to the Township of Scarborough....

built a single-track radial line along Kingston Road to Blantyre. Over the next 13 years this was extended to West Hill

West Hill, Toronto

-Location and principal features:It is located in the eastern end of the city, in the former city of Scarborough. Scarborough was merged with five other municipalities and a regional government to form the new "City of Toronto" in 1998...

. In 1904, the line became the Scarboro Division of the Toronto and York Radial Railway

Toronto and York Radial Railway

The Toronto and York Radial Railway operated radial transit services outside of Toronto. Service began in 1904 with the merger of several operators:* Metropolitan Street Railway...

. Service continued along this line until 1936 when it was replaced by bus service.

As the urban area continued to expand, much of rural Scarborough was converted to suburban housing developments in the last third of the 20th century. At the start of the 21st century, growth has occurred along the Highway 401 corridor at the northern end of the Scarborough RT; highrise condominium

Condominium

A condominium, or condo, is the form of housing tenure and other real property where a specified part of a piece of real estate is individually owned while use of and access to common facilities in the piece such as hallways, heating system, elevators, exterior areas is executed under legal rights...

projects have increased the residential density around Scarborough City Centre

Scarborough City Centre

Scarborough City Centre is the central business district in the Scarborough district of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is roughly bounded by Kennedy Road to the west, Markham Road to the east, Ellesmere Road to the south, and Sheppard Avenue to the North...

.

On 15 April 1953, Scarborough was included within Metropolitan Toronto

Metropolitan Toronto

, a new upper level of municipal government with jurisdiction over regional services such as arterial roads and transit, police, and ambulance services. (Fire fighting services remained separate.) Scarborough retained its local council but gained representation on a new Metro Council. The new council had 24 members, 12 from the old city of Toronto and 12 from the suburban municipalities. The council was not directly elected but was made up of members of each of the local councils. Scarborough's contribution was its reeve who at the time was Oliver Crockford.

In 1967, Scarborough was incorporated as a borough

Borough

A borough is an administrative division in various countries. In principle, the term borough designates a self-governing township although, in practice, official use of the term varies widely....

. The reeve was replaced with a mayor. Albert Campbell, who had been reeve since 1957, became Scarborough's first mayor. The new borough's council consisted of the mayor and four members of the board of control (which functioned as an executive committee). There were also ten aldermen. The mayor and the controllers also sat on Metro Council. In 1973, Scarborough increased in size when the West Rouge area, formerly within the Township of Pickering

Pickering, Ontario

, was transferred to it with the creation of the Regional Municipality of Durham. The borough's status was changed to city in 1983. The number of aldermen was increased to 14 and the term of office extended to three years from two.

In 1988, there was a reorganization. The board of control was abolished. Alderman was changed to councillor. Six additional metro council positions were created and these were elected separately for the first time. Scarborough's council consisted of a mayor, 14 local councillors and six Metro councillors.

In 1998, Scarborough was amalgamated with North York, Etobicoke, York

York, Ontario

York is a dissolved municipality in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Geographically, it is located northwest of Old Toronto, southwest of North York and east of Etobicoke, where it is bounded by the Humber River. Formerly a separate city, it was one of six municipalities that amalgamated in 1998 to form...

, East York

East York

East York can refer to:*East York, Pennsylvania, United States*East York, Ontario, Canada...

and the old city of Toronto to become the new city of Toronto.

Geography

Scarborough's borders are Victoria Park Avenue

Victoria Park Avenue

to the west, the Rouge River, the Little Rouge Creek and the Scarborough-Pickering

Pickering, Ontario

Townline to the east, Steeles Avenue

Steeles Avenue

to the north, and Lake Ontario

Lake Ontario

to the south.

Topographically, Scarborough is dominated by two watersheds, Highland Creek

Highland Creek (Toronto)

Highland Creek is a river in the Scarborough district of Toronto, Ontario, emptying into Lake Ontario at the eastern end of the Scarborough Bluffs. It is home to several species of fish including trout, carp, and bass. It is a meandering river which, like most rivers in Toronto , travels through a...

and the Rouge River

Rouge River (Ontario)

. Highland Creek lies almost entirely within Scarborough and occupies approximately 70% of its total area. It occupies the western half of Scarborough while the Rouge River flows through the eastern portion. Both of these rivers flow into Lake Ontario on Scarborough's shore. Due to the location of the Lakeshore CN railway right-of-way, both river deltas are constricted to narrow channels where they flow into the lake.

Highland Creek is the most urbanized watershed in the Toronto area without about 85% of its land use devoted to urban uses. Some sections of the river run through parks and remain in a fairly natural state, while other parts run through industrial or residential districts where the flow is often diverted or channelled. Sections of the creek are marked by deep ravines and valleys, which contain little or no urban development. The deep valley the creek cuts in its bottom sections remains primarily parkland, with little or no development taking place within the valley.

Scarborough is home to an earthen cliff

Cliff

In geography and geology, a cliff is a significant vertical, or near vertical, rock exposure. Cliffs are formed as erosion landforms due to the processes of erosion and weathering that produce them. Cliffs are common on coasts, in mountainous areas, escarpments and along rivers. Cliffs are usually...

formation known as the Scarborough Bluffs

Scarborough Bluffs

. The Bluffs can be found along the shore of Lake Ontario

Lake Ontario

, stretching about 14 kilometres (8.7 mi), and reaching heights of more than 60 metres (196.9 ft) in places. They are part of a much larger formation known as the Iroquois Shoreline, most of which is located somewhat further inland. The Iroquois Shoreline marks the extent of a prehistoric lake, Glacial Lake Iroquois

Glacial Lake Iroquois

Glacial Lake Iroquois was a prehistoric proglacial lake that existed at the end of the last ice age approximately 13,000 years ago.The lake was essentially an enlargement of the present Lake Ontario that formed because the St. Lawrence River downstream from the lake was blocked by the ice sheet...

, whose level was quite a bit higher than present-day Lake Ontario's. It shrank in size at the close of the last ice age.

Erosion

Erosion is when materials are removed from the surface and changed into something else. It only works by hydraulic actions and transport of solids in the natural environment, and leads to the deposition of these materials elsewhere...

has been a problem along the Scarborough Bluffs. Properties located near the brink have been abandoned, and houses condemned, as the brink wears back away from the lake. Since the 1980s, large areas of beach at the base of the Bluffs have been reinforced with limestone

Limestone

Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....

breakwaters and construction rubble infilling.

Scarborough is also notable for the Rouge River Valley, parts of which are still in a natural, wooded state. The valley is home to a great variety of wildlife including deer

Deer

Deer are the ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. Species in the Cervidae family include white-tailed deer, elk, moose, red deer, reindeer, fallow deer, roe deer and chital. Male deer of all species and female reindeer grow and shed new antlers each year...

, fox

Fox

Fox is a common name for many species of omnivorous mammals belonging to the Canidae family. Foxes are small to medium-sized canids , characterized by possessing a long narrow snout, and a bushy tail .Members of about 37 species are referred to as foxes, of which only 12 species actually belong to...

es, and the occasional coyote

Coyote

The coyote , also known as the American jackal or the prairie wolf, is a species of canine found throughout North and Central America, ranging from Panama in the south, north through Mexico, the United States and Canada...

Climate

Scarborough's climate is moderate for Canada due to its southerly location within the country and its proximity to Lake Ontario. It has a humid continental climate

Humid continental climate

A humid continental climate is a climatic region typified by large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot summers and cold winters....

(Koppen climate classification

Köppen climate classification

The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by Crimea German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen himself, notably in 1918 and 1936...

Dfb), with warm, humid summers and generally cold winters. Mean temperature and precipitation tends to be slightly lower than the downtown core or south Etobicoke for instance, due in part to the weather station being farther from the moderating influence of the lake and also because of its more northeast location. Conditions vary based on proximity to the lake, with fog more common in the south and areas close to the lake far noticeably cooler on hot summer days.

Scarborough Climatological Data
Temperature
Month	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Mean
Average high °C (°F)	-2.6 (27.3)	-1.6 (29.1)	3.6 (38.4)	11.1 (52.0)	18.4 (65.1)	23.1 (73.6)	26.5 (79.7)	25.1 (77.1)	20.1 (68.1)	13.0 (55.4)	6.7 (44.1)	0.3 (32.5)	13 (55)
Mean °C (°F)	-6.1 (21.0)	-5.2 (22.6)	-0.4 (31.3)	6.6 (43.9)	13.4 (56.1)	18.0 (64.4)	21.5 (70.7)	20.3 (68.5)	15.6 (60.1)	9.0 (48.2)	3.5 (38.3)	-2.9 (26.8)	9 (49)
Average low °C (°F)	-9.6 (14.7)	-8.7 (16.3)	-4.3 (24.3)	2.1 (35.8)	8.2 (46.8)	12.8 (55.0)	16.4 (61.5)	15.5 (59.9)	11.1 (52.0)	4.9 (40.8)	0.2 (32.4)	-6.2 (20.8)	6 (42)
Precipitation mm (in)	56 (2.2)	50 (2.0)	66 (2.6)	78 (3.1)	81 (3.2)	72 (2.8)	72 (2.8)	92 (3.6)	94 (3.7)	72 (2.8)	88 (3.5)	78 (3.1)	749 (29.4)
Data recorded at Malvern Malvern, Toronto Malvern is a neighbourhood in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, with a population of 44,315. It is located in the northeast corner of the city, in the district of Scarborough. Scarborough was merged with five other municipalities and a regional government to form the new City of Toronto in 1998... for Environment Canada. Average data recorded over a 30 year span from 1971 to 2000.

Demographics

In 2006, Scarborough's population was 602,575, with a density of 3161 square kilometres (1,220.5 sq mi). A study based on census data between 1996 and 2001 shows that Scarborough's growth rate was more than 6%, the highest growth in Toronto. Its population is third, behind Old Toronto and North York, but if this trend continues it should be the most populated district in Toronto by 2010.

A significant portion of Scarborough's population is composed of immigrants and descendants of immigrants who have arrived in the last four decades. In 2006, 57% of residents were foreign born. Visible minorities

Visible minority

A visible minority is a person who is visibly not one of the majority race in a given population.The term is used as a demographic category by Statistics Canada in connection with that country's Employment Equity policies. The qualifier "visible" is important in the Canadian context where...

make up 67.4% of the population. South Asian residents make up 22.0% of the population, Chinese

Chinese people

The term Chinese people may refer to any of the following:*People with Han Chinese ethnicity ....

residents account for 19.5% of the population, Black Canadian

Black Canadian

'Black Canadians is a designation used for people of Black African descent, who are citizens or permanent residents of Canada. The term specifically refers to Canadians with Sub-Saharan African ancestry. The majority of Black Canadians are of Caribbean origin...

residents make up 10.3% of the population, while Filipino Canadian

Filipino Canadian

Filipino Canadians are Canadians of Filipino ancestry. Filipino-Canadians are the fourth-largest subgroup of the Overseas Filipinos.Canada only had a small population of Filipinos until the late 20th century. To date, there are currently around 400,000 Filipino Canadians in Canada, most of them...

residents account for 6.5%. The remaining visible minority groups each represent less than 2% of the population. The immigrant population has created vibrant multicultural locales in various areas of Scarborough. One of the more notable among these is the heavy concentration of Chinese businesses and restaurants in the Agincourt neighbourhood. Many of Scarborough's main arteries, including segments of Kingston Road, Eglinton Avenue East and Lawrence Avenue East, feature Caribbean

Caribbean

The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...

, Chinese and Halal

Halal

Halal is a term designating any object or an action which is permissible to use or engage in, according to Islamic law. The term is used to designate food seen as permissible according to Islamic law...

restaurants and shops, as well as businesses representing the other ethnic groups in the area. Scarborough also has several Tamil

Tamil

Tamil may refer to:* Tamil language, one of the Dravidian languages primarily spoken in India, Tamil Eelam and Southeast Asia* Tamil script, primarily used to write the Tamil language* Tamil people -See also:...

owned businesses that cater to the community.

Crime

Eye Weekly
Eye Weekly
Eye Weekly was a free weekly newspaper published in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was owned by Torstar, the parent company of the Toronto Star, and was published by their Star Media Group until its final issue on May 5, 2011. The following week, Torstar launched a successor publication, The Grid.-...

has noted that most media in the Greater Toronto Area has long portrayed Scarborough as an "embarrassment" and a "gang-infested wild, wild east". For instance, the Toronto Life
Toronto Life
Toronto Life is a monthly Canadian magazine about entertainment, politics and life in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Toronto Life also publishes a number of annual special interest guides about the city, including Home Decor, Stylebook, Eating & Drinking, Real Estate and Weddings. Established in 1966,...

article “The Scarborough Curse”, by Don Gillmor, nicknamed the former city "Scarlem" and described it as "a mess of street gangs, firebombings and stabbings". In 2005, a series of gang-related shootings in some Scarborough neighbourhoods led to the portrayal of Scarborough in the media as crime-ridden. As well, based on an informal survey of people on the streets in the Greater Toronto Area, a reporter noted that most respondents associated Scarborough with "crime" or "ghetto".

However, long term trends show that Scarborough is less prone to violent crime than the rest of Toronto. Between 1997 and 2006, the ratio of violent crime in Scarborough averaged 20.4%. Scarborough's portion of Toronto's population during that period averaged 23.6%.

Murder rates for Scarborough and Toronto show no particular trend. Between 1997 and 2006, the ratio of murders in Scarborough as compared to the rest of Toronto ranged from a low of 8.8% to a high of 32.2%.

According to Toronto Police

Toronto Police Service

The Toronto Police Service , formerly the Metropolitan Toronto Police, is the police service for the city of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is the largest municipal police service in Canada and second largest police force in Canada after the Royal Canadian Mounted Police...

Chief Bill Blair

Bill Blair (police chief)

William Sterling "Bill" Blair, is the police chief of Toronto, Ontario. He was selected in a 4–2 vote of the Toronto Police Services Board in early April 2005, and formally appointed Chief of the Toronto Police Service on April 26, 2005. He succeeded Mike Boyd, who had served as interim chief...

, "[42 Division is] the safest division in the city"; this division includes north Scarborough. The safest part of Toronto is north Scarborough from Victoria Park Ave. to the Pickering border, north of Highway 401.

In January, 2008, two councillors argued that the media was distorting how crime was reported in Scarborough. Norm Kelly

Norm Kelly

Norman "Norm" Kelly is a Canadian politician. He is a city councillor in Toronto, Ontario representing one of two municipal wards that make up the jurisdiction of Scarborough—Agincourt.-Background:Kelly is a trained historian...

and Michael Thompson

Michael Thompson (Canadian politician)

Michael Thompson is a city councillor in Toronto, Canada. He represents Ward 37, the western half of Scarborough Centre. Raised in Scarborough he has a BA in Economics from Concordia University. He is a Black Canadian....

noted that whenever a shooting occurred in the rest of the city the location was given as the nearest major intersection. But when a shooting happened in Scarborough the location was given as 'Scarborough'. According to the councillors, this gave people an erroneous impression of Scarborough as 'crime-ridden'. They proposed that news outlets sign a 'media protocol' so that all crime locations were given as intersections. However, the city's Executive Committee turned down the request citing this as a form of censorship. Mayor David Miller

David Miller (Canadian politician)

David Raymond Miller is a Canadian politician. He was the 63rd Mayor of Toronto and the second since the 1998 amalgamation. He was elected to the position in 2003 for a three-year term and re-elected in 2006 for a four-year term...

said "It’s not city council’s role to tell the media how to do their job".

Economy

Scarborough is a former borough

Borough

A borough is an administrative division in various countries. In principle, the term borough designates a self-governing township although, in practice, official use of the term varies widely....

of Toronto, and as such its economy is an integral component of the economy of Toronto

Economy of Toronto

The economy of Toronto plays a vital role in Canada's economy and that of the world. Toronto is a commercial, distribution, financial and industrial centre. It is the banking and stock exchange centre of Canada, and is the country's primary wholesale and distribution point. Ontario's wealth of raw...

. Scarborough lacks the same level of urban density and business infrastructure development as downtown Toronto. A few farms are still present in the northeast corner of Scarborough, reflective of the area's rural past.

Compared to the City of Toronto as a whole, industry in Scarborough is similar in all labour force categories, save for manufacturing which is higher in Scarborough, and professional, scientific and technical services which are lower. Notable companies that have their headquarters in Scarborough include Toyota Canada Inc.

Toyota Canada Inc.

Toyota Canada Inc. is the exclusive Canadian distributor of Toyota, Scion and Lexus cars, SUVs and trucks, and Toyota Industrial Equipment. Toyota Canada's head office is in Toronto, with regional offices in Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal and Halifax...

, Eli Lilly Canada Inc.

Eli Lilly and Company

Eli Lilly and Company is a global pharmaceutical company. Eli Lilly's global headquarters is located in Indianapolis, Indiana, in the United States...

, Thomson Carswell, CTVglobemedia

CTVglobemedia

CTVglobemedia , was one of Canada's largest private media companies. Its operations include newspaper publishing , television broadcasting and production , radio broadcasting , and their respective Internet properties.Originally established by BCE and the Thomson family in 2001 combining CTV Inc.,...

, Teva Canada, Cinram

Cinram

Cinram International Income Fund is a Toronto, Ontario-based manufacturer of pre-recorded DVDs, VHS videocassettes, CD-Audio, CD-ROMs, and audio cassettes. Cinram was established in 1969 in Montreal by Isidore Philosophe and Samuel Sokoloff....

, Honda Canada Inc.

Honda Canada Inc.

Honda Canada Inc. is the Canadian division of the Honda Motor Company. Founded in 1969, Honda has been building cars in Canada since 1986. The head office is in Toronto, Ontario.-Corporate head office:...

, Royal Doulton

Royal Doulton

The Royal Doulton Company is an English company producing tableware and collectables, dating to 1815. Operating originally in London, its reputation grew in The Potteries, where it was a latecomer compared to Spode, Wedgwood and Minton...

, SKF

SKF

SKF, Svenska Kullagerfabriken AB , later AB SKF, is a Swedish bearing company founded in 1907, supplying bearings, seals, lubrication and lubrication systems, maintenance products, mechatronics products, power transmission products and related services globally.-History:The company was founded on...

, Alfa Laval

Alfa Laval

Alfa Laval AB is a Swedish company, founded in 1883 by Gustaf de Laval and Oscar Lamm. The company is a leading producer of specialized products and solutions used to heat, cool, separate and transport such products as oil, water, chemicals, beverages, foodstuffs, starch and...

, President's Choice Financial

President's Choice Financial

President’s Choice Financial is a banking service provided by Loblaw Companies . Several different organizations provide individual financial services under the President's Choice Financial umbrella:...

, Aviva

Aviva

Aviva plc is a global insurance company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the sixth-largest insurance company in the world measured by net premium income and has 53 million customers in 28 countries...

, Yellow Pages Group

Yellow Pages Group

Yellow Pages Group is a Canadian directory publisher. YPG published its first directory in 1908. YPG is the incumbent directory publisher in Québec, Ontario, Manitoba, Alberta, British Columbia, the Territories and Atlantic Canada...

, and Telus

TELUS

Telus is a national telecommunications company in Canada that provides a wide range of telecommunications products and services including internet access, voice, entertainment, video, and satellite television. The company is based in Burnaby, British Columbia, part of Greater Vancouver...

. Scarborough was also home to a General Motors Canada

General Motors Canada

General Motors of Canada Limited is General Motors' Canadian division. Its national headquarters office, Canadian Regional Engineering Centre, and main manufacturing plants are located in Oshawa, Ontario. GM Canada is 100% owned by GM.As of Apr...

Van Assembly plant

Scarborough Van Assembly

Scarborough Van Assembly was a General Motors Canada plant in Scarborough, Ontario, which opened in 1952. It once stood on the current Eglinton Town Centre retail complex, located in the Golden Mile between Victoria Park Avenue and Warden Avenue...

, which closed in 1993.

Several points of attraction exist between the McCowan RT station

McCowan (TTC)

McCowan is a station on the Scarborough RT line of the Toronto subway and RT. It is located at 1275 McCowan Road, just north of Ellesmere Road at Bushby Drive/Town Centre Court...

and the Midland RT station

Midland (TTC)

Midland is a station on the Scarborough RT line of the Toronto subway and RT. It is located at 2085 Midland Avenue between Ellesmere Road and Cosentino Drive. It was opened in 1985....

, including the Scarborough Town Centre

Scarborough Town Centre

The Scarborough Town Centre is an upscale shopping mall in the Scarborough district of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Central to the Scarborough City Centre, it is adjacent to the Scarborough Centre RT station and Scarborough Centre Bus Terminal. It was constructed by Oxford Properties and opened in...

, Albert Campbell Square

Albert Campbell Square

Albert Campbell Square is a hard surface civic square in Toronto's eastern district of Scarborough outside of the Scarborough Civic Centre, named for the former politician, Metro Chairman and first mayor of Scarborough Albert Campbell....

, Canadian government buildings, offices, and new condominiums in recent years. The area has become one of Toronto's new central business district

Central business district

A central business district is the commercial and often geographic heart of a city. In North America this part of a city is commonly referred to as "downtown" or "city center"...

s in the outer boroughs.

Culture

Most of the Scarborough based news media have been either weekly or monthly publications. The earliest newspaper was the Scarborough News and Advertiser which was published weekly starting in September, 1921. It lasted until the 1930s. Other short lived papers and magazines included The Enterprise (1945–1966), Scarborough Mail (1946–1955) and The News (1952–1995) and 54east magazine (2005–2009). The only remaining English language local newspaper is the Scarborough Mirror

Scarborough Mirror

The Scarborough Mirror is a tabloid format newspaper that began on May 3, 1962 as an off-shoot of the Don Mills Mirror.Today the newspaper is published by Toronto Community News, a division of Metroland Media Group, which also publishes The North York Mirror, The East York Mirror, The...

which started publication in 1962 and was later acquired by the Toronto Star's community news division, Metroland. A Scarborough edition of the Toronto wide photography publication SNAP Scarborough was launched in 2009. Ming Pao Daily News

Ming Pao Daily News (Toronto)

Ming Pao Daily News , or Ming Pao for short, is a Chinese language newspaper in Canada. Owned by the Ming Pao Group of Hong Kong, The Canada Eastern edition , publishing in Toronto, Ontario, appeared in the early 1990s to challenge the Sing Tao Daily and the World Journal in the Chinese news media...

is a Chinese language newspaper whose headquarters are in Scarborough. They started production in 1993.

CTV Toronto has its headquarters based in the neighbourhood of Agincourt of Scarborough, near the intersections of McCowan Road and Highway 401. In 1970, Trillium Cable

CUC Broadcasting

CUC Broadcasting was a Canadian media company. Primarily a cable television distributor which operated under the name Trillium Cable, CUC was also a minority investor in other smaller cable companies, including Northern Cable and UMG Cable....

started to provide cable TV service to Scarborough. It was later purchased by Shaw Cable

Shaw Communications

Shaw Communications is Canada's largest telecommunications company that provides telephone, Canada's fastest Internet and television services as well as broadcasting and soon Wifi. Shaw is headquartered in Calgary, Alberta...

in 1995. During the early days of the company they produced several local shows for their own cable channel. These shows were produced by volunteers and showed a wide variation in quality. These shows were satirized by Mike Myers

Mike Myers (actor)

Michael John "Mike" Myers is a Canadian actor, comedian, screenwriter, and film producer of British parentage...

on his hit comedy Wayne's World

Wayne's World (film)

Wayne's World is a 1992 American comedy film directed by Penelope Spheeris and starring Mike Myers in his film debut as Wayne Campbell and Dana Carvey as Garth Algar, hosts of the Aurora, Illinois-based Public-access television cable TV show Wayne's World...

.

Scarborough residents have developed their own unique sense of humour, as evidenced by Mike Myers, whose Wayne's World character was inspired by growing up in the area. Other Scarborough natives include Eric McCormack

Eric McCormack

Eric James McCormack is a Canadian American actor, musician, writer and producer. Born in Toronto, he began his acting career performing in school plays at Stephen Leacock Collegiate Institute High School...

(Will & Grace
Will & Grace
Will & Grace was an American television sitcom that was originally broadcast on NBC from September 21, 1998 to May 18, 2006 for a total of eight seasons. Will & Grace remains the most successful television series with gay principal characters...

), John Candy

John Candy

John Franklin Candy was a Canadian actor and comedian. He rose to fame as a member of the Toronto branch of The Second City and its related Second City Television series, and through his appearances in comedy films such as Stripes, Splash, Cool Runnings, The Great Outdoors, Spaceballs, and Uncle...

(Second City

The Second City

The Second City is a improvisational comedy enterprise which originated in Chicago's Old Town neighborhood.The Second City Theatre opened on December 16, 1959 and has since expanded its presence to several other cities, including Toronto and Los Angeles...

, SCTV
Second City Television
Second City Television is a Canadian television sketch comedy show offshoot from Toronto's The Second City troupe that ran between 1976 and 1984.- Premise :...

), and musical group Barenaked Ladies

Barenaked Ladies

Barenaked Ladies is a Canadian alternative rock band. The band is currently composed of Jim Creeggan, Kevin Hearn, Ed Robertson, and Tyler Stewart. Barenaked Ladies formed in 1988 in Scarborough, Ontario, then a suburban municipality outside the City of Toronto...

. Actor Jim Carrey

Jim Carrey

James Eugene "Jim" Carrey is a Canadian-American actor and comedian. He has received two Golden Globe Awards and has also been nominated on four occasions. Carrey began comedy in 1979, performing at Yuk Yuk's in Toronto, Ontario...

also lived in Scarborough during his teen years. Scarborough has also proved to be the home of prominent hip-hop

Hip hop music

Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...

artists, including Maestro Fresh-Wes

Maestro (rapper)

Wesley Williams , better known as Maestro and formerly Maestro Fresh-Wes, is a Canadian rapper, record producer, and actor. His pioneering status and outstanding achievements have led to him being referred to as the "Godfather of Canadian hip hop".In 1989 he became the first Canadian rapper to have...

, Choclair

Choclair

Kareem Blake, better known by his stage name Choclair, is a Canadian rapper. He helped develop Canadian hip hop in the 1990s, as a member of the Circle.-Career:...

, Kardinal Offishall

Kardinal Offishall

Jason D. Harrow , better known by his stage name Kardinal Offishall , is a Canadian rapper and record producer. He is often credited as Canada's "hip-hop ambassador", and is best known for his distinctive reggae and dancehall-influenced style of hip-hop.-Life and career:Harrow was born in...

, Saukrates

Saukrates

Karl Amani Wailoo , better known by his stage name Saukrates , is a Canadian rapper, singer, and record producer of Guyanese descent. He is the co-founder of Capitol Hill Music, and lead singer of hip-hop/R&B group Big Black Lincoln...

, and the group BrassMunk

BrassMunk

BrassMunk is a Canadian hip hop group from Scarborough, Ontario, located in east Toronto. Formed in 1997, the group consists of emcees S-Roc, Clip, Reign , and DJ/producer Agile...

.

According to the list of largest shopping malls in Canada, the Scarborough Town Centre

Scarborough Town Centre

is the 10th largest in the country and the 4th largest in the GTA

Greater Toronto Area

. It is located next to the Scarborough Civic Centre

Scarborough Civic Centre

The Scarborough Civic Centre, located in Toronto, Ontario, was designed by architect Raymond Moriyama for the then Borough of Scarborough. It was officially opened by then mayor Albert Campbell and Queen Elizabeth II in 1973...

, Albert Campbell Square

Albert Campbell Square

, and Consilium Place

Consilium Place, Scarborough

Consulium Place is an office complex in Scarborough City Centre in Toronto.* 17 storey 100 Consilium was built in 1984 - main tenant is Telus...

. This area was developed as a city centre under the old City of Scarborough government. The Scarborough Walk of Fame is also located in the Town Centre, consisting of plaques embedded in the floor to honour notable residents, past and current. The inaugural inductees included National Basketball Association

National Basketball Association

The National Basketball Association is the pre-eminent men's professional basketball league in North America. It consists of thirty franchised member clubs, of which twenty-nine are located in the United States and one in Canada...

player Jamaal Magloire

Jamaal Magloire

Jamaal Dane Magloire is a Canadian professional basketball player who last played for the Miami Heat of the National Basketball Association . The , center was selected out of the University of Kentucky by the Charlotte Hornets with the 19th overall pick in the 2000 NBA Draft, after withdrawing...

, Olympic

Olympic Games

The Olympic Games is a major international event featuring summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the world’s foremost sports competition where more than 200 nations participate...

gold medalist Vicky Sunohara

Vicky Sunohara

Vicky Sunohara is a three-time Olympian and is known as one of Canada's all-time most popular female ice hockey players. She was once considered to be the best female ice hockey player in the world and was described as the "Wayne Gretzky of women's hockey"...

, and eight prominent residents who contributed to advances in medicine, arts, and the community.

In 1974, the Toronto Zoo

Toronto Zoo

The Toronto Zoo is a zoo located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It opened August 15, 1974 as the Metropolitan Toronto Zoo and is owned by the City of Toronto; the word "Metropolitan" was dropped from its name when the cities of the Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto were amalgamated to form the...

was moved from its original downtown location to its current location in the Rouge River valley. The new location enabled the zoo to increase its overall area from 3 hectares (7.4 acre) to over 300 hectares (741.3 acre). The zoo was transformed at this time from a 19th century zoo with a few animals cramped behind iron bars into a zoo where space was provided to animals and the setting attempted to duplicate the animals' natural environments.

The topography of Scarborough has provided the area with an abundance of golf courses. There is a mix of public and private courses. Dentonia Park is a public course established in 1967 and is situated in the Taylor-Massey Creek

Taylor-Massey Creek (Don)

Taylor-Massey Creek is a tributary of the Don River in Toronto, Ontario. It flows through Scarborough and East York, where it enters the Don River. The creek is named after two prominent Toronto families. The Taylors were a wealthy family that owned and operated the Don Valley Brick Works...

ravine beside the Victoria Park subway station

Victoria Park (TTC)

Victoria Park is a station on the Bloor–Danforth line of the subway system in Toronto, Canada. It is located at 777 Victoria Park Avenue, one block north of Danforth Avenue. The station itself can be accessed by pedestrians via Victoria Park Avenue, or via Albion Avenue, or via a walkway that leads...

. Formerly a private club, the Tam O'Shanter Golf Course was established in 1973 as a public course and is located alongside Highland Creek

Highland Creek (Toronto)

. Private clubs include the Toronto Hunt Club which was the first golf course in Scarborough, established in 1895 alongside Lake Ontario. and the Scarboro Golf and Country Club was established in 1912. The Cedarbrae Golf & Country Club was established in 1922 and moved to its current Rouge River Valley location at Steeles Ave East in 1954.

On 17 May 2006, the Nike Malvern Sports Complex was opened in the Malvern

Malvern, Toronto

Malvern is a neighbourhood in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, with a population of 44,315. It is located in the northeast corner of the city, in the district of Scarborough. Scarborough was merged with five other municipalities and a regional government to form the new City of Toronto in 1998...

neighbourhood. Nike Canada

Nike, Inc.

Nike, Inc. is a major publicly traded sportswear and equipment supplier based in the United States. The company is headquartered near Beaverton, Oregon, which is part of the Portland metropolitan area...

donated $500,000 to build the complex, which includes a basketball court, a practice soccer pitch, and a running track. The track was constructed from 50,000 used running shoes. The complex was built on the grounds of the Blessed Mother Teresa Catholic Secondary School

Blessed Mother Teresa Catholic Secondary School

Blessed Mother Teresa Catholic Secondary School is a Catholic secondary school in Scarborough, a municipality of Toronto, Ontario. It is part of the Toronto Catholic District School Board.-History and tradition:...

and is open to the public. Olympic hurdler Perdita Felicien

Perdita Felicien

Perdita Felicien is a Canadian hurdler.-Early life:Felicien carries her mother's maiden name, whose origins are in the Caribbean island nation of Saint Lucia...

was on hand at the opening to encourage youth to participate in sports.

Scarborough is one of the prominent destination areas for Tamils in the GTA who have fled Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...

because of civil war

Sri Lankan civil war

The Sri Lankan Civil War was a conflict fought on the island of Sri Lanka. Beginning on July 23, 1983, there was an on-and-off insurgency against the government by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam , a separatist militant organization which fought to create an independent Tamil state named Tamil...

. Efforts to integrate Tamil culture include; establishing cross-cultural and cross-national alliances, the building of many Tamil schools across the GTA.

Scarborough is home to several local arts organizations. Scarborough Music Theatre

Scarborough music theatre

Scarborough Music Theatre is a non-profit community theatre group in Scarborough, Ontario, Canada, near Toronto. The group evolved out of concerts done by the Church of the Master senior choir into the Scarborough Light Opera in the early 1960s. The early years consisted of concerts and Gilbert...

, Scarborough Players, and Scarborough Theatre Guild work together under the name Theatre Scarborough. The Scarborough Choral Society performs one full scale musical and a Christmas concert each year.

Education

The Toronto District School Board

Toronto District School Board

Toronto District School Board, also known by the acronym TDSB, is the English-language public school board for Toronto, Ontario, Canada...

operates Scarborough's English-language, secular public schools. Before 1998, Scarborough Board of Education

Scarborough Board of Education

Scarborough Board of Education was the school district serving Scarborough, Ontario and established in 1954.The board's administrative offices were located at 140 Borough Drive within the Scarborough Civic Centre and operations out of a building at 2466 Eglinton Avenue East west of Midland Avenue...

operated those schools.

Scarborough's first schoolhouse opened in 1805 on the Thomson farmstead. In 1847 Egerton Ryerson

Egerton Ryerson

Adolphus Egerton Ryerson was a Methodist minister, educator, politician, and public education advocate in early Ontario, Canada...

recommended that 11 school districts be created. By 1904, 28 schools had been built throughout the township. In 1914, Agincourt Continuation School offered education from up to grade 12.

Both Agincourt Collegiate Institute

Agincourt Collegiate Institute

Agincourt Collegiate Institute is a secondary school located in Agincourt, Toronto, Ontario. The school, founded in 1915 as Agincourt Continuation School, became Agincourt High School in 1954, and Agincourt Collegiate Institute in 1957. A.C.I is the oldest school in the former Scarborough...

and R.H. King Academy claim to be the oldest secondary schools in Scarborough. Agincourt Collegiate Institute opened in 1915 as the Agincourt Continuation School. It became a high school in 1954. R.H. King Academy opened in 1922 as the Scarborough High School being the first high school for in the Scarborough area at that time and became a collegiate in 1930. Scarborough portion of schools is roughly proportional to population. For example, there are 28 secondary schools out of a total of 110 in the public school board which is about 25% of the total.

Mary Ward Catholic Secondary School

Mary Ward Catholic Secondary School

Mary Ward Catholic Secondary School is a Roman Catholic secondary school of the Toronto Catholic District School Board in Scarborough, Ontario, a district of Toronto. Mary Ward is a unique centre of self-directed learning and a member of the Canadian Coalition of Self-Directed Learning...

is one of two self-directed learning schools in Ontario, and one of seven in Canada.

Scarborough has two post-secondary institutions. Centennial College was opened in 1966. It was the first community college to open in Ontario. Starting from one campus in Warden Woods, it now boasts three campuses across Scarborough (and a fourth in East York). It has 12,000 full time and 28,000 part-time students. The University of Toronto

University of Toronto

The University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...

expanded in 1964 and built the University of Toronto Scarborough

University of Toronto Scarborough

The University of Toronto Scarborough is a satellite campus of the University of Toronto. Based in the Scarborough district of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, the campus is set upon suburban parkland in the residential neighbourhood of Highland Creek...

, which has an enrolment of 10,000 students as of 2006.

Governance

Scarborough is represented by five ridings for the Provincial government and five full ridings plus one partial riding for the Federal government. The Federal riding of Pickering—Scarborough East

Pickering—Scarborough East

Pickering—Scarborough East is a federal electoral district in Ontario, Canada, that has been represented in the Canadian House of Commons since 2004....

straddles the border between Scarborough and Pickering. Municipal riding boundaries were harmonized within the City of Toronto to match the provincial boundaries in 1999 through provincial legislation called The Fewer Municipal Politicians Act of 1999. This took effect on 1 December 2000. Each provincial riding is split between two city councillors. Thus Scarborough is represented by ten councillors.

The only direct representation is through the Scarborough Community Council which includes all ten Scarborough councillors. The community council meets once a month at the former offices of the city of Scarborough just south of the Scarborough Town Centre. The council deals with a variety of local issues such as outdoor patio applications, neighbourhood traffic plans, and exemptions from certain by-laws such as retail signs, fences, trees and ravines. However, the council has no direct power - all decisions made must vetted by Toronto City Council in order to take effect.

Public transit

Scarborough is at the eastern terminus of the Bloor-Danforth line of the Toronto subway and RT

Toronto subway and RT

The Toronto subway and RT is a rapid transit system in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, consisting of both underground and elevated railway lines, operated by the Toronto Transit Commission . It was Canada's first completed subway system, with the first line being built under Yonge Street, which opened in...

system. There are three subway stations in Scarborough: Victoria Park

Victoria Park (TTC)

, Warden

Warden (TTC)

Warden is a station on the Bloor–Danforth line of the subway system in Toronto, Canada. It is located at 3276 St. Clair Avenue East, on the southeast corner of the intersection with Warden Avenue....

, and Kennedy

Kennedy (TTC)

Kennedy is the terminal subway station of the Bloor-Danforth and Scarborough RT lines of the Toronto subway and RT. It is located at 2455 Eglinton Avenue East, just east of Kennedy Road. The station opened in 1980 in what was then the Borough of Scarborough with the Bloor-Danforth platform, and the...

. Beginning at Kennedy station, a separate line called the Scarborough RT runs north and east toward Scarborough City Centre

Scarborough City Centre

. It runs at grade for two stops until Ellesmere Road where it becomes elevated until it reaches its terminus at McCowan Road. The system is nearing the end of its life and the city is reviewing replacement options, including turning it into a light rail transit line or an extension of the subway. In addition to the subway and RT, the Toronto Transit Commission

Toronto Transit Commission

-Island Ferry:The ferry service to the Toronto Islands was operated by the TTC from 1927 until 1962, when it was transferred to the Metro Parks and Culture department. Since 1998, the ferry service is run by Toronto Parks and Recreation.-Gray Coach:...

(TTC) runs an extensive bus network throughout Scarborough. Many of the bus lines run to and from the subway and RT stations.

The GO Transit

GO Transit

GO Transit is an inter-regional public transit system in Southern Ontario, Canada. It primarily serves the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area conurbation, with operations extending to several communities beyond the GTHA proper in the Greater Golden Horseshoe...

authority has two major commuter train lines running through Scarborough, and operates seven GO train stations. The Lakeshore East line runs across the south end of the city, while the Stouffville line runs in a more north-south fashion in the centre of Scarborough. GO Transit also has a few bus stations and stops in Scarborough.

Roads and highways

The only major freeway in Scarborough is Highway 401, which connects Windsor, Ontario

Windsor, Ontario

Windsor is the southernmost city in Canada and is located in Southwestern Ontario at the western end of the heavily populated Quebec City – Windsor Corridor. It is within Essex County, Ontario, although administratively separated from the county government. Separated by the Detroit River, Windsor...

to the Ontario

Ontario

-Quebec

Quebec

Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....

provincial border, which then continues to Montreal

Montreal

Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...

, Quebec

Quebec

, together spanning 825 kilometres (512.6 mi). The highway runs east-west across the middle of Scarborough, with six to eight lanes in each direction. The short, minor freeway Highway 2A

Highway 2A (Ontario)

King's Highway 2A, commonly referred to as Highway 2A, was the designation of five separate provincially maintained highways in the Canadian province of Ontario. Highway 2A was an alternate route to Highway 2 in London, Chatham and Cornwall; these routes were all eventually redesignated...

runs parallel to Lake Ontario in the eastern part of Scarborough. In the late 1960s, a plan was formed to link Highway 2A with an eastern extension of the Gardiner Expressway

Gardiner Expressway

The Frederick G. Gardiner Expressway, colloquially referred to as "the Gardiner", is a municipal expressway in the Canadian province of Ontario, connecting downtown Toronto with its western suburbs...

. The planned route known as the Scarborough Expressway would have travelled next to the Canadian National Railway

Canadian National Railway

The Canadian National Railway Company is a Canadian Class I railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec. CN's slogan is "North America's Railroad"....

railway lines parallel to Kingston Road

Kingston Road (Toronto)

Kingston Road is the southernmost major road along the eastern portion of Toronto, specifically in the districts of East York and Scarborough. Until 1998, it formed a significant portion of Highway 2...

. The plan failed to materialize but land acquisitions for the expressway route beside the tracks remain vacant. Currently there are plans to turn it into a mix of housing and parkland.

The arterial roads of Scarborough are generally aligned either north-south or east-west. Kingston Road and Danforth Road

Danforth Avenue

Danforth Avenue is an east-west arterial road in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Its western end begins in Old Toronto from the Prince Edward Viaduct as a continuation of Bloor Street and continues through East York until intersecting with Kingston Road in Scarborough...

are two significant exceptions to this grid, both running diagonally in a southwest-northeast direction across the south end of Scarborough. From north to south, the major east-west arterial roads are Steeles Avenue

Steeles Avenue

, Finch Avenue

Finch Avenue

Finch Avenue is an arterial thoroughfare and concession road which travels east–west through the city of Toronto. The road also has short extensions into Peel and Durham Regions as Peel Regional Road 2 and Durham Regional Road 37.-History:...

, Sheppard Avenue

Sheppard Avenue

Sheppard Avenue is an east-west principal arterial road in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. A small portion of a continuation of the road in Pickering, Ontario is also called Sheppard Avenue.-History:...

, Ellesmere Road, Lawrence Avenue

Lawrence Avenue

Lawrence Avenue is a major east-west thoroughfare in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is divided into east and west portions by Yonge Street, the dividing line of east-west streets in Toronto....

, Eglinton Avenue

Eglinton Avenue

Eglinton Avenue, originally known as the Richview Sideroad within Etobicoke, is an east-west arterial thoroughfare in Toronto and Mississauga, in the Canadian province of Ontario. Within Toronto, Eglinton Avenue is the only road which crosses through all six former boroughs...

and St. Clair Avenue

St. Clair Avenue

St. Clair Avenue is a major east-west street in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was laid out in the late 18th century by the British as a concession road , north of Bloor Street and north of Queen Street....

. From west to east, the major north-south arterial roads are Victoria Park Avenue

Victoria Park Avenue

, Warden Avenue, Birchmount Road, Kennedy Road, Midland Avenue, Brimley Road

Brimley Road

Brimley Road is a north-south street in Scarborough and York Region, Ontario, Canada. The road carries 32000 vehicles daily as of May 2007 and is classified as a major arterial road by the city of Toronto....

, McCowan Road, Markham Road, Neilson Road, Morningside Avenue, Meadowvale Road and Port Union Road.

Water and sewage

Scarborough's drinking water is supplied by the R.C. Harris Filtration Plant at the foot of Victoria Park Avenue and the F.J. Horgan Filtration Plant. The F.J Horgan Filtration Plant is currently undergoing expansion. When completed in 2011 it will be able to process 800 Megalitres/day and it will also be the first plant to replace chlorine with ozone as its primary cleansing method. Wastewater for Scarborough is treated at the Highland Creek Water Pollution Control Plant. This plant was constructed in 1954 and started processing in 1956. It has undergone continual expansion to meet ongoing demand.

Solid waste

Early garbage collection in Scarborough was performed by individual communities and dumped in local landfills which were located in nearby ravines. In 1967 waste collection was reorganized. Local landfills were closed and most of the garbage was directed to a new landfill on Beare Road in eastern Scarborough. This dump was eventually closed in 1981. A waste transfer site was constructed near Markham Road and Sheppard Ave. East. From there garbage was trucked to the Keele Valley

Keele Valley Landfill

The Keele Valley Landfill was the largest landfill in Canada and the third largest in North America during its operation. It was the primary landfill site for the City of Toronto and the regional municipalities of York and Durham from 1983 until 2002, and was owned and operated by the City of Toronto...

dump in Vaughan and the Brock Road dump in Pickering. In 2002 the Keele Valley landfill was closed. As part of Toronto's overall waste management, garbage was then trucked to Michigan

Michigan

Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....

. This arrangement is scheduled to last until 2010. At that time, garbage will then be sent to the new Green Lane landfill
Green Lane landfill
The Green Lane landfill is a landfill near London, Ontario in Canada. It is owned by the City of Toronto.It operates a leachate collection system and an on-site leachate treatment plant. Green Lane also has an extensive landfill gas collection system. This gas is roughly 50 per cent methane and 50...

site in Elgin County.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.