Scarborough, which was settled by Europeans in the 1790s, has grown from a collection of small rural villages and farms to become fully urbanized with a diverse cultural community.

A popular one is Scarberia, a portmanteau of Scarborough and Siberia, a reference to its seemingly distant eastern location from downtown Toronto and apparent lack of notable attractions.

Such nicknames typically use the prefix "Scar" and a suffix derived from the name of a region, nation, or ethnicity; for instance, "Scompton" or "Scarlem", alluding to Compton and Harlem respectively.

[15] During the early part of life in Upper Canada, local administration and justice was administered by the colonial government.

Partly due to a political reorganization that was a result of the Durham Report, Scarborough gained elected representation on the Home District Council.

The Ontario Municipal Board stepped in and appointed an oversight committee which prevented the collapse of local government.

In 1973, the borough increased in size when the West Rouge area, formerly within the Township of Pickering, was transferred to it with the creation of the Regional Municipality of Durham.

[16] As the urban area continued to expand, much of rural Scarborough was converted to suburban housing developments in the last third of the 20th century.

[20] Due to the location of the Lakeshore CN railway right-of-way, both river deltas are constricted to narrow channels where they flow into the lake.

The valley is home to a great variety of wildlife including deer, foxes, and the occasional coyote, while the river hosts salmon and catfish.

Since the 1980s, large areas of beach at the base of the Bluffs have been reinforced with limestone breakwaters and construction rubble infilling.

Mean temperature and precipitation tends to be slightly lower than the downtown core or south Etobicoke for instance, due in part to the weather station being farther from the moderating influence of the lake and also because of its more northeast location.

[citation needed] Many of Scarborough's main arteries, including segments of Kingston Road, Eglinton Avenue East and Lawrence Avenue East, feature Caribbean, Chinese, African, and Indian restaurants and shops, as well as businesses representing the other ethnic groups in the area.

[46] In 2008, Toronto City Councillors Norm Kelly and Michael Thompson protested that the media was distorting how crime was reported in Scarborough.

Points of interest in the area include Scarborough Town Centre, Albert Campbell Square, Street Eats Market, many surrounding stores, and government and business offices.

The last remaining English-language local newspaper was the Scarborough Mirror, which started publication in 1962 and was later acquired by the Toronto Star's community news division, Metroland.

[16] Residents of the district have developed their own unique sense of humour, as evidenced by Myers, whose Wayne's World character was inspired by growing up in the area.

[56] Other Scarborough natives include Lilly Singh, Eric McCormack[56] (Will & Grace), John Candy[56] (Second City, SCTV), musical group Barenaked Ladies and singer Abel Tesfaye known as the Weeknd.

[56] Scarborough has also been the home of prominent hip hop artists and producers, including Maestro Fresh Wes, Choclair, Boi-1da, Nineteen85, Kardinal Offishall, Saukrates, David Strickland and the group BrassMunk.

[57] According to the list of largest shopping malls in Canada, the Scarborough Town Centre is the fifth-largest in the country and the fourth-largest in the GTA.

The Scarborough Walk of Fame is also located in the Town Centre, consisting of plaques embedded in the floor to honour notable residents, past and current.

The inaugural inductees included National Basketball Association player Jamaal Magloire, Olympic gold medalist Vicky Sunohara, and eight prominent residents who contributed to advances in medicine, arts, and the community.

[62] The Cedarbrae Golf & Country Club was established in 1922 and moved to its current Rouge River Valley location at Steeles Ave East in 1954.

Nike Canada donated CA$500,000 to build the complex, which includes a basketball court, a practice soccer pitch, and a running track.

The council deals with a variety of local issues such as outdoor patio applications, neighbourhood traffic plans, and exemptions from certain by-laws such as retail signs, fences, trees and ravines.

In 1893, the Toronto and Scarboro' Electric Railway, Light and Power Company built a single-track radial line along Kingston Road to Blantyre.

Line 2 Bloor–Danforth has three subway stations in Scarborough: Victoria Park, Warden, and Kennedy, the current eastern terminus.

In 1985, the Government of Ontario opened the Scarborough RT, an above-ground light metro line that operated between Kennedy station at its west and McCowan Road at its east.

Kingston Road and Danforth Avenue were laid out prior to surveying the township, and both run diagonally in a southwest–northeast direction across the south end of Scarborough.

Upgrades completed in 2011 allow it to process up to 800 megalitres per day and it will also be the first plant to replace chlorine with ozone as its primary cleansing method.