A tale of two Scarboroughs on Facebook
Submitted by Martin on Sun, 12/23/2007 - 14:54
Checking Facebook for groups on Scarborough, soon find one that's titled "You know you're from Scarborough when" and goes on to include guff like:
"You lock your car doors when you drive, and only roll the window down if the tempature is over 30 and you absolutely have to.
You perk up every time SCARBOROUGH is mentioned on the news but it's usually related to some crime story (i.e. murder, robbery, drive-by-shooting/stabbing etc.) when you don't mess with my crew
You sadly realize our proudest accomplishment besides supplying 50% of the T Dot's crime rate, is the Barenaked Ladies.
People involuntarily back away when you say you're from SCARBOROUGH.
-Your school has had atleast one lockdown."
There's even a group called, "I'm from Scarborough, and believe it or not...I'm not a criminal."
Now if like me you were looking for Scarborough, North Yorkshire, you might have done a double take. Sure, crime rate's said to be up - but lockdowns in schools and so on? In the town once patrolled by tv cop named Rosie? (at least, I think that was his name)
Turns out, this Scarborough is over in Ontario, Canada. (Checking Wikipedia, I see there are also places named Scarborough in Australia, the US, South Africa, Trinidad and Tobago; even islands called Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea.
Phew! - so that's a relief, then.
THere are, though, groups for Scarborough, North Yorks - inc I am from Scarborough and I'm proud at: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2217866972
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Scarborough nicknamed Scarlem a a symbol of alienation
More about that Canadian Scarborough, in perhaps unduly negative article in Toronto Life, includes:
" Scarborough remains a symbol of a certain kind of alienation. When it
was a homogeneous suburb in the 1960s and ’70s, it symbolized drab
conformity, a largely white unhipness that was sneered at. Now it’s
diverse and a symbol of a different kind of alienation, one that
carries a hint of menace rather than complacency. The spectre of
ethnic gangs, of sectarian tension, floats through it. Like the old
cliché of Scarberia (a term that was coined in the 1960s, connoted
exile and has now gone out of use, it seems), this new Scarborough
(whose occasional appellatives Scarlem and Scartown imply race or
violence and haven’t been adopted with any widespread enthusiasm) is a
combination of truth and caricature.
...
It was in 1793 that Elizabeth Simcoe, wife of John Graves Simcoe,
first viewed the Scarborough bluffs, which reminded her of the
limestone cliffs at Scarborough in England: “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.” In the end, the
Simcoes built their summer residence overlooking the Don Valley, the
first of many slights.
Scarborough was incorporated as a township in 1850 with a population
of 3,821, and it grew modestly until the post-war boom, when it began
to take its current shape. "
http://www.torontolife.com/features/scarborough-curse/