The Scarborough Mirror: News

DAVID NICKLE

With all it's got to offer, Scarborough should be on more tourists' to-do lists, and Toronto councillors this week voted to make sure they get the chance to do just that.

Councillors supported a motion from Ward 39 Councillor Mike Del Grande (Scarborough-Agincourt) to set up two new and somewhat controversial tourism information pillars at the Toronto Zoo and the Scarborough Civic Centre.

The pillars, dubbed InfoTOgo, have been placed in downtown business improvement areas and at key spots like Nathan Phillips Square.

The pillars combine audio, a map dispenser and advertising for local businesses and attractions.

Not everyone downtown is fond of them, but Scarborough councillors were keen to see them help promote Scarborough.

"There are people who are staying with family and friends and trying to navigate the city and because of this, they will get to the Scarborough Bluffs, because the bluffs is one of the wonders of Scarborough our beautiful community," said Ward 37 Councillor Michael Thompson (Scarborough Centre).

"We should have these pillars to promote, provide information and to support Scarborough's integration into the City of Toronto. There are many of us who have been left out."

Del Grande, who moved the motion, said he couldn't have agreed more. He told councillors that the city's tourism industry excludes Scarborough with its "downtown-centred activities."

"If the city is supposed to be the sum of its whole. I continually see a systemic discrimination when it comes to the area I represent. We have all kinds of Chinese restaurants, Korean restaurants, Japanese restaurants; the number of people who go to the zoo is a very large number and to overlook this is fundamentally wrong. I think we're entitled to have some sort of presence in the areas of Scarborough."

Ward 40 Councillor Norm Kelly (Scarborough-Agincourt) said tourists should have plenty to do in Scarborough, and supported the plan to set up a kiosk at the zoo.

"You would hate to have a tourist come into Toronto, swing through the zoo and not know about the other attractions in the general area," he said.

"You've got the Rouge Valley, you've got the bluffs, you've got the Thomson Park heritage buildings - the Scarborough Town Centre and the Civic Centre, and you've got some of the finest ethnocultural dining in Toronto."