News   Jul 09, 2024
Portland Commons Nearing the Finish Line
 405     1 
News   Jul 09, 2024
Trio of Project Settlements to Transform Danforth and Main
 1.2K     2 
News   Jul 09, 2024
Dangers During the Occupancy Period in a Condominium Development
 505     0 

Leave 'Scarborough' out of crime reports

I know of and can place “Scarborough Village†– some old-timers I’m sure still refer to it as “Stop 17†for the former radial and rural bus service the TTC provided through there.

I can and will distinguish Agincourt, Cliffside, Malvern and West Hill – those areas are fairly easy to define (and I see these referred to often – and people often still use Agincourt and West Hill as their postal addresses). Other areas like Bendale, Wexford, etc are less prominent and harder to define.

Though I find that neighbourhood names are quite loose in North York – sometimes addresses as far north as Weston and Finch are part of Weston (for which I use much stricter boundaries), and Downsview goes way beyond its origins at Keele and Wilson – Jane/Finch is NOT Downsview, and even Sheppard and Allen, with Downsview Station is a stretch. Willowdale and Don Mills also have intangible boundaries (is Leslie and York Mills part of Don Mills? NO!)

The 140 neighbourhoods the city uses are so arbitrary. I live in "Bay Street Corridor!" or "Downsview-Roding-CFB!". They may be useful for planning purposes (they are set up to follow census tract boundaries) but they are not typically based upon geography that typical people associate with.
 
Exactly. That's why when I defined neighbourhoods for TOBuilt, I ended up doing it myself from available sources. There are, genuinely, some areas that defy any normal description. I would say Upper Bay is one of these - towards its north it becomes part of Yorkville, but around College there's no real identifier (certainly not "Discovery District").
 
Stop 17 isn't actually Scarborough Village. Stop 17 is kind of midway between Cliffcrest and Cliffside. Scarborough Village is further East, around Markham/Kingston.

(As an aside, there's definitely an excellent book waiting to be written about the radial car route that ran along Kingston Rd. It's interesting to see some of the persistent traces of it, like the Stop 17 Variety store, or Stop 20 Plaza, or a couple of the others in West Hill.)

The neighbourhood that really needs a name is the one thats developing around Bay/College. I'm sure it will get one, too, with all the new residents who either have moved or will move in.
 
Globe

Link to article


Mayor tackles media, lobbyists

JEFF GRAY

What's in a name? Mayor David Miller agreed yesterday to ask the city's news media not to use the word Scarborough when reporting on crimes there, in an effort to improve the former city's image.

The mayor's executive committee approved a motion from Councillor Glenn De Baeremaeker (Scarborough Centre) to have Mr. Miller contact media outlets on behalf of councillors from the often-mocked suburb. He is to ask they consider reporting only the major intersection where a crime occurs, instead of using the word Scarborough and tarring the entire place as crime ridden.

"I do think it's appropriate to raise the issue and point out the sensitivity of it," said Mr. Miller, who said he plans to write a letter to editors and publishers.

The mayor and his committee rejected an earlier motion from Councillor Norm Kelly (Scarborough-Agincourt) to ask reporters to sign a "protocol" banning use of the word. "It's not city council's role to tell the media how to do your job," Mr. Miller told reporters. ". . . It's up to the various media outlets to decide how they deal with the issue."

The powerful new committee, meeting publicly for the first time yesterday, also recommended that council approve a revised plan to crack down on lobbyists. The plan now goes to council next month.

The complicated rules, which seemed to confuse many on the committee, would force those trying to influence city hall to register as lobbyists and disclose whom they were contacting and why.

An earlier plan excluded the city's unions, which upset many of Mr. Miller's right-leaning critics. The proposal that the committee approved yesterday includes unions, but exempts them if they are communicating about their own contracts or work conditions.
 
I've even seen Peel and Durham regions referred to as "city's west/east end".
Click to expand...

I can just see the Mississauga brigade leaping to claim the murders as their own. "We are not Toronto's 'West End'! That guy was shot in the independent City of Mississauga, Canada's fifth largest city."
 
I'm always delighted when I hear that someone has been bumped off in my neighbourhood, especially if it is a particularly gruesome slaying. Riverdale, which used to have a reputation as the rough east end of the city, is getting too wussy by half.
 
I can just see the Mississauga brigade leaping to claim the murders as their own. "We are not Toronto's 'West End'! That guy was shot in the independent City of Mississauga, Canada's fifth largest city."
Click to expand...

ROFL!

I've always suspected that this conception of Mississauga is a generational thing (like those hangers-on from previous generations who still write their addresses as Streetsville, ON or Weston, ON), but the counterexamples that seem to consistently appear here among younger people never fail to surprise me.
 
This has been an amusing thread. I agree with cdl42 from the second post in this thread. In fact, I prefer neighbourhood names to mentioning far off, distant intersections. Global seems to lead the charge, but other t.v. news stations designate anything bad that happens north west of Dufferin and Bloor as the ubiquitous "Jane-Finch Corridor". This alleged "corridor" must be Canada's fifth largest city all by itself! Nobody ever mistakes Regent Park for Chinatown or the Club District, but Jane and Finch cover an incredible expanse, at least in the media's crime reporting. I'd rather see mayhem up there described as North York, the City With Heart.
 
but other t.v. news stations designate anything bad that happens north west of Dufferin and Bloor as the ubiquitous "Jane-Finch Corridor". This alleged "corridor" must be Canada's fifth largest city all by itself!
Click to expand...

The trouble with that judgment is that the *entire* former City of North York must have, I don't know, 6-7 hundred thousand people by now, not much more that that at most. If Toronto were still pre-mega (and Ottawa were already mega), North York at large would only be 4th or 5th or 6th in Ontario, never mind Canada...
 
So what are you trying to say? That Scarborough isn't as bad as people think? Just not sure why you dug up that old thread.
 
The media tends to say Scarborough instead of the street of where the crime takes place. People think that all of Scarborough is bad which offends me because I live there and I know that it's a safe area. I bet the people who say Scarborough is bad rarely visit Scarborough.
 
You must log in or register to post here.

Back
Top