City Wide Open Space
Urban Plaza, below average overall (score 29, rank ~27th percentile). Strongest: connectivity; weakest: natural comfort.
Aerial, City of Toronto orthophoto, ~8 cm/px source · cached 5/9/2026
City Wide Open Space scores 29.3 / 100. Strongest dimensions: enclosure / eyes on park and connectivity. Weakest: edge activation (0). Border-vacuum risk is elevated (100). This score is a transparent reading of Jane Jacobs-style vitality factors, not a definitive judgment.
Area · 0.43 ha
What's here
Getting around
355 m of mapped path, 100% paved.
No steps mapped on the path network.
No seating mapped in OpenStreetMap.
Nearest parking 80 m away. None of the 6 nearby lots records whether it has accessible spaces.
Path, seating and parking data comes from OpenStreetMap and reflects what volunteers have mapped, not a survey. Absence here means nobody has recorded it. This section does not assess wheelchair access: the relevant OpenStreetMap tag is present on well under 1% of Toronto paths.
Weighted across six dimensions · confidence 66%
Data confidence: moderate
Scores are not bell-curved. Percentiles and expected scores provide context without changing the underlying model.
Loading map…
The parks map is loading.Explain this score
Where did the 29 come from? Each weighted contribution against a neutral 50 baseline. Green = pushed up; red = pulled down.
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
City Wide Open Space works because its connectivity score (71) is in the top tier and its enclosure (81) is also top quartile (31 transit stops sit within a 400 m walk).
What limits this park
City Wide Open Space is held back by natural comfort (31, bottom quartile): only 0% canopy means little summer shade; border-vacuum risk is also elevated (100).
Most distinctive characteristic
Most distinctive feature: exceptionally high connectivity (71, top decile).
Jacobs reading
City Wide Open Space sits between an urban social park and an ecological retreat: moderately useful for both, exceptionally suited to neither.
Tradeoffs
- Connectivity (71) significantly outpaces natural comfort (31): well placed in the city but offers little shade or ecological respite.
- The park is enclosed by buildings (81) but the surrounding streets are quiet (edge activation 0): frame without animation.
- High connectivity coexists with high border-vacuum risk (100): much of that connectivity is to highways, rail, or parking lots, not to neighbourhoods.
Performance in context
- Strong underperformer relative to its cohort: raw 29 vs an expected 42 (gap -12).
Typology classification
Classified as Urban Plaza: 4299 m², paved (0% canopy), 7.9 buildings/100 m
Edge Activation
Within 100 m of the park edge: 29 active uses (transit_stop, cafe, restaurant, retail) and 12 dead/hostile uses (highway, parking_lot, rail). 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
Connectivity blends paths, intersections, transit, entrances, and edge density. This park has 4 mapped paths/walkways and 26 sidewalk segments within 50 m; 6 street intersections within 100 m; 31 transit stops within a 400 m walk; 4 estimated access points across ~304 m of perimeter. edge density is healthy, no superblock penalty. Source coverage: centreline, pedestrian_network, transit_osm.
Source: Toronto Centreline V2 + Pedestrian Network + OSM transit stops
Amenity Diversity
1 distinct amenity types in the park (garden). 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
Natural-comfort components for this park: 0.0% estimated tree canopy; 1 city-mapped trees inside the polygon (1.0/ha). Reading: exposed. Source coverage: street_trees. Impervious surface is approximated (Toronto's authoritative layer ships only as a raster GeoTIFF).
Source: Toronto Treed Area + Ravine + Waterbodies + Street Tree Inventory
Enclosure / Eyes on Park
24 buildings within 25 m of the park edge (18 mid-rise, 3 low-rise, 3 tower); avg edge height 23.5 m (~8 floors); 7.9 buildings per 100 m of 304 m perimeter (strong frontage density); edges lean tall but still framed; 3 towers ≥ 40 m within 25 m of the edge. "Eyes on the park" come strongest from the 18 mid-rise edge buildings.
Source: Toronto 3D Massing (building footprints + heights)
Border Vacuum Risk
Border-vacuum factors within 50 m of the park: Queen's Park, University Avenue, Line 1 Yonge-University, Queen's Park, Queen's Park, Queen's Park, Queen's Park Crescent West, Queen's Park. 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
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 (1 types · 1 records)
- garden
Nearby active-edge features (61)
- transit stop: College Street5 m
- transit stop: University / College Northwest Entrance5 m
- highway: Queen's Park6 m
- transit stop: University Avenue14 m
- highway: Queen's Park14 m
- highway: Queen's Park15 m
- cafe: 18feet15 m
- retail: Discovery Pharmacy19 m
- highway: University Avenue23 m
- transit stop: University / College Southwest Entrance25 m
- highway: Queen's Park Crescent West27 m
- highway: Queen's Park34 m
- transit stop: University Ave at College St - Queen's Park Station38 m
- cafe: Tim Hortons39 m
- retail: Garry's Shoe Repair41 m
- highway: Queen's Park44 m
- transit stop: Queen's Park46 m
- rail: Line 1 Yonge-University46 m
- transit stop: Queen's Park52 m
- restaurant53 m
- transit stop: Queen's Park57 m
- rail: Line 1 Yonge-University57 m
- retail: Medical Canada57 m
- transit stop: University Ave at College St - Queen's Park Station57 m
- transit stop: Queen's Park58 m
- retail: Ginkgo Floral Design58 m
- retail: Mode Line59 m
- highway: University Avenue60 m
- retail: INS Market64 m
- retail67 m
- transit stop: University / College Southeast Entrance69 m
- transit stop71 m
- transit stop: University / College Northeast Entrance71 m
- parking lot80 m
- restaurant: Subway81 m
- transit stop: Queen's Park Cres East at College St North Side84 m
- cafe: Starbucks84 m
- restaurant: Manchu Wok86 m
- transit stop: Queen's Park Cres East at College St North Side87 m
- restaurant: The Poke Box88 m
- parking lot92 m
- retail: La Fete102 m
- cafe: Starbucks103 m
- parking lot107 m
- highway: University Avenue111 m
- highway: Queen's Park Crescent East115 m
- parking lot117 m
- restaurant: FLOCK rotisserie + greens119 m
- cafe: Aroma Espresso Bar125 m
- highway: Queen's Park Crescent West137 m
- rail: Line 1 Yonge-University141 m
- rail: Line 1 Yonge-University144 m
- parking lot157 m
- transit stop: McCaul Street160 m
- cafe: CHICHA San Chen165 m
- parking lot169 m
- transit stop: MaRS Discovery District171 m
- highway: University Avenue186 m
- restaurant: Druxy's Famous Deli189 m
- cafe: Tim Hortons195 m
- transit stop: University Ave at Gerrard St West196 m
Park profile
Five-axis radar across the structural dimensions.
Citywide percentile ranks
Across all Toronto parks in the dataset.
- Overall vitality27th
- Edge activation48th
- Connectivity92th
- Amenity diversity61th
- Natural comfort15th
- Enclosure86th
Most similar parks
Closest in metric space across the five structural dimensions.
- Senator Peter Bosa ParketteUrban Plaza38
- Festival ParkCorridor / Linear Park38
- Bruce Mackey ParkCorridor / Linear Park39
- Maughan Crescent ParketteUrban Plaza39
- Benner ParkOther28
Most opposite parks
Furthest in metric space. Useful for recognising what kind of park this isn’t.
- Trca Lands ( 26)Ravine / Naturalized Park27
- Toronto Islands - Muggs Island ParkRavine / Naturalized Park25
- Rouge ParkRavine / Naturalized Park28
- Toronto ZooWaterfront Park67
- Mclevin Woods ParkRavine / Naturalized Park49
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 City Wide Open Space matters. 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.
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.
- Diversify what people can do in the park (playground, washroom, water, shade, performance, sport, garden): even small additions raise this score.
- Increase canopy and reduce paved area. Shade and water features extend usable hours and seasons.
- Mitigate border vacuums (highways, rail, parking) with active programming on the still-permeable edges and treat the hostile edge as a design challenge.
Data sources
- 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 FacilitiesInventory of in-park amenities (washrooms, fields, rinks…).
- Toronto Pedestrian NetworkSidewalk segments around and through parks; estimated park entrances.
- Toronto Centreline V2Street segments + intersection nodes near park edges; trails and walkways.
- Toronto 3D MassingBuilding footprints + heights for edge-building counts, frontage density, and tower-in-the-park risk.
- Toronto Treed AreaTree canopy share inside park polygons via stratified-grid sampling.
- Toronto Waterbodies & RiversWater surface inside parks + nearest-water distance for cooling.
- Ravine & Natural Feature ProtectionRavine overlap as a cooling / natural-comfort signal.
- Toronto Street Tree InventoryTree count + density inside park polygons.
- Neighbourhood Profiles(Pending) Equity context proxy.
- OpenStreetMap (Overpass API)Cafés, restaurants, retail, transit stops, parking, highways, rail.