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BALMY BEACH COMMUNITY RECREATION CENTRE - Building Grounds, site photograph
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Waterfront Parkcluster ·Walkable Mid-Rise Neighbourhood Parks (large-scale)The Beaches (63)confidence moderate

BALMY BEACH COMMUNITY RECREATION CENTRE - Building Grounds

Waterfront Park, above average overall (score 44, rank ~84th percentile). Strongest: amenity diversity; weakest: connectivity.

Aerial, City of Toronto orthophoto, ~8 cm/px source · cached 5/9/2026

BALMY BEACH COMMUNITY RECREATION CENTRE - Building Grounds scores 43.9 / 100. Strongest dimensions: enclosure / eyes on park and natural comfort. Weakest: edge activation (6.3). Border-vacuum risk is low. This score is a transparent reading of Jane Jacobs-style vitality factors, not a definitive judgment.

Best forwaterfront recreationlong walks

Area · 0.92 ha

What's here

Recreation
PlaygroundSports fieldBasketball
Facilities
Community centre
Vitality Score
44/100

Weighted across six dimensions · confidence 72%

Data Confidence
43.9 / 100
Citywide
84th
of all 3,788 parks
Among Waterfront Park
87th
same primary typology
Expected for similar parks
30
median in small Waterfront Park waterfront (n=112)
Performance gap
+14
raw − expected · context confidence high
strong overperformer

Scores are not bell-curved. Percentiles and expected scores provide context without changing the underlying model.

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Street context. Park polygon highlighted on the citywide map.

Explain this score

Where did the 44 come from? Each weighted contribution against a neutral 50 baseline. Green = pushed up; red = pulled down.

Download JSON
What pushed this score up or down vs a neutral 50weight × score
Edge Activation6 · p66
-10.9
Border Vacuum Risk12 (risk)
+3.8
Amenity Diversity35 · p89
-3.1
Enclosure / Eyes on Park76 · p80
+2.6
Natural Comfort62 · p79
+1.8
Connectivity48 · p56
-0.4

Sum of contributions = the headline score. A negative bar means that dimension dragged the park below the city-wide neutral baseline.

Why this park works

BALMY BEACH COMMUNITY RECREATION CENTRE - Building Grounds works because its amenity diversity score (35) is in the top tier and its enclosure (76) is also top quartile.

What limits this park

BALMY BEACH COMMUNITY RECREATION CENTRE - Building Grounds doesn't have a clear weakness. Every measured dimension is at or above the middle of the pack.

Most distinctive characteristic

Most distinctive feature: exceptionally high amenity diversity (35, top quartile).

Jacobs reading

BALMY BEACH COMMUNITY RECREATION CENTRE - Building Grounds sits between an urban social park and an ecological retreat: moderately useful for both, exceptionally suited to neither.

Tradeoffs

  • The park is enclosed by buildings (76) but the surrounding streets are quiet (edge activation 6): frame without animation.

Performance in context

  • This park is a strong overperformer for its cohort: raw 44 versus an expected 30 for similar parks (small Waterfront Park waterfront) (gap +14).

Typology classification

confidence 75%
Waterfront Parkalso reads as Athletic / Recreation Park

Classified as Waterfront Park: name suggests waterfront and nearest waterbody is ~240 m away. Secondary read: Athletic / Recreation Park (50% of amenity types are athletic (basketball, sports_field)).

Edge Activation

25% weightpartial 60%
6.3 / 100

Within 100 m of the park edge: 1 active uses (community) and 1 dead/hostile uses (parking_lot). Active edges keep "eyes on the park" through the day; parking lots, blank institutional walls, rail and highway frontages drain street life.

Source: OSM POIs (amenity/shop) + Toronto Building Footprints + land use

Connectivity

20% weightmeasured 85%
48.1 / 100

Connectivity blends paths, intersections, transit, entrances, and edge density. This park has 3 mapped paths/walkways and 15 sidewalk segments within 50 m; 8 street intersections within 100 m; 2 transit stops within a 400 m walk; 0 estimated access points across ~452 m of perimeter. edge density is healthy, no superblock penalty. Source coverage: centreline, pedestrian_network, transit_osm.

Streets within 25 m14
Intersections within 100 m8
Paths/walkways (50 m)3
Sidewalk segments (50 m)15
Transit stops (400 m)2
Estimated entrances0
Edge connections / 100 m perimeter3.09
Park perimeter452 m

Source: Toronto Centreline V2 + Pedestrian Network + OSM transit stops

Amenity Diversity

20% weightmeasured 75%
34.5 / 100

4 distinct amenity types in the park (basketball, community_centre, playground, sports_field). Diversity, not raw count, drives the score so a park with many distinct activity types can outrank a larger park that repeats the same use.

Source: Toronto Parks & Recreation Facilities + OSM amenity tags

Natural Comfort

15% weightmeasured 75%
62.3 / 100

Natural-comfort components for this park: ~32.9% effective canopy (3.1% from contiguous tree polygons + scattered tree density); nearest waterbody ~240 m; 47 city-mapped trees inside the polygon (47.0/ha). Reading: partially shaded. Source coverage: treed_area, waterbodies, street_trees. Impervious surface is approximated (Toronto's authoritative layer ships only as a raster GeoTIFF).

Canopy coverage3.1%
Canopy area0.03 ha
Inside ravine system0.0%
Water surface inside park0.0%
Nearest water (if outside park)240 m
Estimated green100.0%
City-mapped trees inside polygon47
Tree density47.0 / ha
Cover diversity (Shannon, 0 to 100)20.1
Sample points used64

Source: Toronto Treed Area + Ravine + Waterbodies + Street Tree Inventory

Enclosure / Eyes on Park

10% weightmeasured 80%
76.4 / 100

110 buildings within 25 m of the park edge (9 mid-rise, 101 low-rise, 0 tower); avg edge height 6.1 m (~2 floors); 24.3 buildings per 100 m of 452 m perimeter (strong frontage density); edges are low-rise (mostly 2 to 3 floors); no towers immediately adjacent. "Eyes on the park" come strongest from the 9 mid-rise edge buildings.

Buildings within 25 m110
Buildings within 50 m110
Avg edge height6.1 m (~2 floors)
Tallest edge building12.4 m
Mid-rise (3 to 7 floors)9
Low-rise (< 3 floors)101
Towers (≥ 13 floors)0
Frontage density24.31 per 100 m perimeter
Mid-rise share of edge8%
Tower share of edge0%
Blank-edge share (proxy)0%
Park perimeter452 m

Source: Toronto 3D Massing (building footprints + heights)

Border Vacuum Risk

10% weightpartial 60%
12.0 risk

Border-vacuum factors within 50 m of the park: parking_lot. Jacobs warned that highways, rail, parking lots and blank institutional edges act as "vacuums" that suppress foot traffic and isolate the park from its neighbourhood.

Source: Toronto Street Centreline (highways) + rail layer + OSM landuse + building footprints

Equity Context

contextinferred 15%
50.0 / 100

Equity Context requires inputs not yet loaded for this park (Toronto Neighbourhood Profiles). Score is held at a neutral 50 with low confidence. Read with caution.

Source: Toronto Neighbourhood Profiles

Amenities (4 types · 5 records)

  • basketball
  • community centre
  • playground
  • sports field

Nearby active-edge features (2)

  • community: Balmy Beach Community Recreation Centre0 m
  • parking lot0 m

Park profile

Five-axis radar across the structural dimensions.

Edge ActivationConnectivityAmenity DiversityNatural ComfortEnclosureBALMY BEACH COMMUNITY RECREATION CENTRE - Building Grounds
Edge activation, connectivity, amenity diversity, natural comfort, and enclosure, each 0 to 100.

Citywide percentile ranks

Across all Toronto parks in the dataset.

  • Overall vitality
    84th
  • Edge activation
    66th
  • Connectivity
    56th
  • Amenity diversity
    89th
  • Natural comfort
    79th
  • Enclosure
    80th

Most similar parks

Closest in metric space across the five structural dimensions.

Most opposite parks

Furthest in metric space. Useful for recognising what kind of park this isn’t.

Human activity signals: not available

No activity signals have landed for this park yet. The model has scored its physical form but it can’t yet say how often it’s programmed, photographed, or walked through. See /data-ethics for what we will and will not collect.

Does this score feel accurate?

Your read of BALMY BEACH COMMUNITY RECREATION CENTRE - Building Groundsmatters. We’re testing whether the model lines up with how people actually use the park. Submissions are stored locally; no account needed.

Tell us how this park feels

We measure structure (canopy, edges, connectivity). You measure feeling. Both matter, and disagreement is itself useful civic data.

Rate this park on as many dimensions as you have an opinion about. 1 = not at all, 5 = strongly. Skip the ones you don't feel sure about. Aggregated only, no comments stored at the row level.

feels socially active
feels comfortable
feels safe
feels connected
feels welcoming
feels ecological / natural
feels good for lingering
feels family-friendly
feels culturally important
70%

What would improve this park?

Generated from the weakest measured dimensions: a starting point, not a prescription.

  • Activate the edges: encourage cafés, retail or community uses on the streets that face the park; replace blank or parking-lot edges where possible.
  • Add or open more entrances and improve sidewalk continuity around the park. More permeability means more spontaneous use.
  • Diversify what people can do in the park (playground, washroom, water, shade, performance, sport, garden): even small additions raise this score.

Data sources

real Toronto data
  • City of Toronto Open Data: Parks (Green Space)
    Polygon boundaries, official names, types. Boundaries are reconciled against OpenStreetMap (ODbL) for new and updated parks.
  • Parks & Recreation Facilities
    Inventory of in-park amenities (washrooms, fields, rinks…).
  • Toronto Pedestrian Network
    Sidewalk segments around and through parks; estimated park entrances.
  • Toronto Centreline V2
    Street segments + intersection nodes near park edges; trails and walkways.
  • Toronto 3D Massing
    Building footprints + heights for edge-building counts, frontage density, and tower-in-the-park risk.
  • Toronto Treed Area
    Tree canopy share inside park polygons via stratified-grid sampling.
  • Toronto Waterbodies & Rivers
    Water surface inside parks + nearest-water distance for cooling.
  • Ravine & Natural Feature Protection
    Ravine overlap as a cooling / natural-comfort signal.
  • Toronto Street Tree Inventory
    Tree count + density inside park polygons.
  • Neighbourhood Profiles
    (Pending) Equity context proxy.
  • OpenStreetMap (Overpass API)
    Cafés, restaurants, retail, transit stops, parking, highways, rail.