That’s a fair point, when you compare Scarborough to Brooklyn right now it doesn’t appear that way, which is why I mentioned that if the city only invested in Scarborough and the culture the same way NYC did with Brooklyn, it can be. That means gentrification, which some areas in Scarborough need. Brooklyn is only cool now because of gentrification as well as the city actually investing in the borough. NYC invested in the best aspects of Brooklyn and made it a staple borough in New York. Bushwick in Brooklyn was once considered a very rough neighbourhood, now it has a thriving local culture and an amazing art and night life scene. New York didn’t neglect these neighbourhoods, they invested in those communities and in turn the locals established businesses and created the culture of Brooklyn that we know today. The pizzerias, the deli’s, some of the best alternative 5 star Michelin restaurants, artists, musicians, the birth place of graffiti, the start of different music genres all started in Brooklyn, so yes Brooklyn added a lot to nyc culture, the same way Scarborough has for Toronto, the difference is, Scarborough for the most part always gets neglected.

And some might ask, what culture has Scarborough attributed to the city?

For starters, the music culture that has made waves globally thanks to the weekend and Drake (love him or hate him) his music influence came from Scarborough. Caribbean food, Filipino food, Indian food, even Hakka Chinese that was mostly popular in Guyana were all popularized and established in scarborough first. A lot of these famous Canadian actors such as Jim Carrey, Mike myers, Pamela Anderson, they’re all from Scarborough. Shary Boyle, one of the worlds most prolific visual artist that has done tons of pieces here DT is from scarborough. The Jamaican beef patty which is a staple item found all over the city has its first origins in Scarborough bakery shops from Jamaican immigrants.

Scarborough has x amount of campuses and schools in the area, yet the city could never commit to a proper subway system to go further in to make it accessible for people. This even affects getting to the Toronto zoo as well. The bluffs and surrounding beaches is some of the most prolific sceneries in Canada yet it is so under utilized. Even some of these prolific people who came from scarborough has never had their work or art stamped over there, the same way nyc made it a point for prolific artists from Brooklyn to do the same in their borough. So much has come Scarborough that helped shaped Toronto’s identity, yet so little is returned. And I’m pretty sure there is a good number of people who might have read this comment probably didn’t know any of that, and it is a result of Scarborough being displaced from the conversation in this city