Comment 246 – comments and feedback

Marcus Medford

I am a proud resident of Scarborough, whose lived in the region my entire life. The idea of losing a Scarborough ward to North York is unthinkable to me and nothing I've read or seen has convinced me it's a move that is welcome, necessary or beneficial. I've not seen any reason why this reduction needed to come from Scarborough and couldn't come from a ward downtown for example.

To echo a quote by Shaun Chen:

encroachment across Victoria Park, the former City of Scarborough boundary, goes against Scarborough's "history, the people, the strong sense of identity that has existed for decades."

Also to his point, Toronto is Canada's biggest and most diverse city, a big reason for that is Scarborough. It needs more representation and advocacy, from someone who knows and loves the area.

During the recent municipal election campaign, residents complained that the city seemed to be deteriorating and not nothing seemed to be done to address that. Reducing the wards in an area of the city that is already often neglected will exacerbate that problem. If Toronto wants to claim to be a place that is welcoming and supportive of immigrants and diverse communities, it needs to do the work to actually provide supports to these people.

With the mayor getting new strong mayor powers, it's more important than ever that there is a strong block of councillors who will stand up for Scarborough. This isn't a critique of John Tory specifically, it would apply to any mayor who doesn't prioritize or care about Scarborough. They would be able to pass their agenda without taking into account what's good for Scarborough residents. Which is a scary prospect considering it already feels like Scarborough is largely neglected.

Since the days of Rob Ford, politicians have squabbled over transit solutions in Scarborough, whether it's LRTs, subways, extending the existing lines etc and nothing has been done. I can't think of many positive changes that have been made to Scarborough's transit situation aside from adding an express lane and an express bus that runs from UTSC to Kennedy station. Not say that hasn't provided some relief but it's nowhere near enough.

Meanwhile the Vaughn extension line was funded and completed in what felt like record time, and the stations are gorgeous. How useful are they, I don't actually know but I can't imagine it being more useful than providing a viable solution for the residents of Scarborough. And it seems strange to prioritize creating subway stations connecting Vaughn (a different municipality) to Toronto and not focusing on transit solution for an area in Toronto. The existing LRT line is decades old, loud, and lacks air conditioning meanwhile line 1, and the sparsely Shepard line have been serviced almost exclusively by the newer cars for around a decade. How does that make sense and how is that fair to the thousands of people who live in Scarborough?

If any changes are made, and i seriously hope they're not, I will not be living in Scarborough anymore but this is still incredibly important to me as someone who's lived, worked and went to school in Scarborough.

I hope this messages and others like it illustrate the harms that would come from making this change.

Feel free to contact me for further comments on the matter.

Best,

Proud Scarborough resident

Marcus Medford