What's the different between Scarborough and Etobicoke? (house, neighbourhoods)
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These two sounds the same to me. I have never been to Etobicoke as there has never been a reason too but have been to Scarborough quite a few times, mostly to Asian restaurants.
Southern Etobicoke is much more urban in nature than most of Scarborough. Mimico, New Toronto and Long Branch were all former towns built along the lakeshore with old, walkable commercial strips and neighbourhoods. Streetcar service still serves this area as well.
Scarborough has a larger population, many more high-rise towers. The demographics are completely different, with most of Southern Etobicoke being majority white, while Northern Etobicoke (Rexdale) has an ethnic mix that is similar to Scarborough's (minus the Tamils).
Etobicoke has more industrial areas in proportion to residential / commercial areas compared to Scarborough.
Scarborough has many more blue-collar residential neighbourhoods than Etobicoke. Scarborough's waterfront areas are generally wealthier than Etobicoke's.
Scarborough is more densely populated.
Transit is generally better in Scarborough, at least south of the 401.
There are many more commercial srtips in Scarborough than there are in Etobicoke which = a more walkable community unless you're south of the Gardiner, where Etobicoke is very old-school urban with a great shopping area along Lakeshore, streetcar access to downtown, and fairly dense single-family homes.
Overall, the "vibe" is very different in Scarborough compared to Etobicoke. Scarborough generally feels more urban.
Etobicoke was the first place in Canada to have a complete planning by law, that set out where there would be industrial areas, parks, schools, hydro right of ways, residential development, and the building of sewers and roads, long before any other place in Canada. It was enacted in 1953, even before the establishment of Metropolitan Toronto, as a political entity, in 1956.
Only one example of the proactive nature of Etobicoke council, was the Hurricane Hazel disaster,in November of 1956, when dozens of people drowned, when the Humber river over flowed it's banks, and swept away whole streets, that had been built on the Humber river flood plain.
With in a year, the entire Humber river valley flood plain was a prohibited place, for future home building. It still is. Only park land and nature trails are found there now. This event also helped to create the Toronto Conservation Authority, to oversee the use of lands along the Humber, the Don, and the Rouge Creek, and the Etobicoke creek.
Etobicoke was Canada's first "planned community ". Scarboro just grew from a mainly agricultural area, to a complex of World War Two manufacturing plants, and the war time single storey homes that were thrown up to house the thousands of war workers, to a sprawling suburb that had thousands of identical homes, on hundreds of identical curving streets.
Only one example of the proactive nature of Etobicoke council, was the Hurricane Hazel disaster,in November of 1956, when dozens of people drowned, when the Humber river over flowed it's banks, and swept away whole streets, that had been built on the Humber river flood plain.
The resulting park today looks like any other park--until you realize that parts of it are graded, like they once were a road. And as I recall from a long-ago visit, fire hydrants still pop out of the grass at regular intervals alongside the graded areas. Raymore is a pleasant park by the river, until you know its history--then it becomes a little creepy.
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