Four months of research by a pair of university students appears, at least in financial terms, to explode a common conviction - that the former city has been "ripped off" since it lost independence a decade ago - as largely a myth.

Their report, Fair Share Scarborough, divided Scarborough Community Council on Tuesday, Jan. 15. Some councillors celebrated the report as good news while some questioned its conclusions.

Dorinda So and Katherine Chan, both studying for management degrees at the University of Toronto at Scarborough, found the area receives a fair share of four city services while its share of six others was "uncertain".

The students presented facts about these services, which included transit and police, but said determining a fair share was "difficult to assess" or a matter of opinion.

Ward 39 (Scarborough-Agincourt) Councillor Mike Del Grande, however, said he's convinced "we're quite under-served" on transit.

The report shows city services in Scarborough as a "glass half-full" and local councillors should stick together and push the city for more, he said. "I don't want us to be lulled into thinking we're OK."

Ward 44 (Scarborough East) Councillor Ron Moeser said the debate should be about quality of life for residents, who feel they now have less access to municipal government and services that aren't what they used to be.

But Ward 38 (Scarborough Centre) Councillor Glenn De Baeremaeker said residents can go to bed feeling good, since the report "proves once and for all there is no anti-Scarborough conspiracy," at city hall.

The "tragedy" of provincial downloading affected all parts of the merged city and resulting lack of funds caused problems everywhere, De Baeremaeker said.

"We are getting a fair share but there's not enough for anybody."

Chan and So, whose research was funded by the U of T, defended their methods, saying they tried to get the most recent statistics they could and avoided "qualitative data" such as people's feelings or opinions.

For Ward 36 (Scarborough Southwest) Councillor Brian Ashton, the report was a signal to Scarborough "to get beyond the navel-gazing" and find out how to fit into the greater city.

That city, Ashton said, is dividing itself into "people who have" and "people who don't have," as shown in a 2007 U of T study on how neighbourhood household income levels have risen or dropped since 1970.

What's important for the city now, in Scarborough or otherwise, Ashton said, is to place services wherever they're required, to "customize" them on the neighbourhood level before needy neighbourhoods decay.

If there's general room for improvement in Scarborough, it's in transit, said Ward 40 (Scarborough-Agincourt) Councillor Norm Kelly who commissioned the report a year ago.

Adding Scarborough otherwise fared "very, very well" in the survey, Kelly said the area's shortage of outdoor facilities - the report notes Scarborough has few outdoor pools and only one outdoor skating rink - result from "frugal" policies of the former City of Scarborough.