Urban Plazacluster ·Underperforming / Leftover Spaces (enclosure-leaning)West Hill (136)confidence moderate

EAST SCARBOROUGH STOREFRONT - Building Grounds

Urban Plaza, middle of the pack overall (score 30, rank ~32th percentile). Strongest: enclosure; weakest: connectivity.

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

EAST SCARBOROUGH STOREFRONT - Building Grounds scores 30.4 / 100. Strongest dimensions: enclosure / eyes on park and natural comfort. Weakest: edge activation (9.3). Border-vacuum risk is low. This score is a transparent reading of Jane Jacobs-style vitality factors, not a definitive judgment.

Best fordaily passing-throughpocket meetings

Area · 0.45 ha

What's here

Facilities

Community centre

Vitality Score

30/100

Weighted across six dimensions · confidence 68%

Data Confidence

30.4 / 100

Citywide

32nd

of all 3,788 parks

Among Urban Plaza

12th

same primary typology

Expected for similar parks

median in small Urban Plaza (n=115)

Performance gap

-11

raw − expected · context confidence high

modest underperformer

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

Loading map…

Street context. Park polygon highlighted on the citywide map.

Explain this score

Where did the 30 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 Activation9 · p70

-10.2

Amenity Diversity12 · p57

-7.6

Connectivity27 · p23

-4.6

Border Vacuum Risk24 (risk)

+2.6

Enclosure / Eyes on Park73 · p76

+2.3

Natural Comfort36 · p26

-2.1

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

EAST SCARBOROUGH STOREFRONT - Building Grounds works because its enclosure score (73) is above average and its edge activation (9) is also above-average (3 mid-rise buildings frame the edge with passive surveillance).

What limits this park

EAST SCARBOROUGH STOREFRONT - Building Grounds is held back by connectivity (27, bottom quartile).

Most distinctive characteristic

Most distinctive feature: exceptionally low connectivity (27, bottom quartile).

Jacobs reading

EAST SCARBOROUGH STOREFRONT - Building Grounds is currently underperforming on both axes: neither integrated into the city nor offering deep natural respite. A candidate for design intervention.

Tradeoffs

The park is enclosed by buildings (73) but the surrounding streets are quiet (edge activation 9): frame without animation.

Performance in context

Reads as a modest underperformer relative to comparable parks (gap -11; cohort: small Urban Plaza).
Citywide rank is high (32nd) but typology rank is more modest (12th): the strength likely comes from the dataset average pulling lower than this typology’s baseline.

Typology classification

confidence 70%

Urban Plaza

Classified as Urban Plaza: 4457 m², paved (0% canopy), 8.2 buildings/100 m

Edge Activation

25% weightpartial 60%

9.3 / 100

Within 100 m of the park edge: 3 active uses (transit_stop, community) and 3 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%

26.8 / 100

Connectivity blends paths, intersections, transit, entrances, and edge density. This park has 0 mapped paths/walkways and 7 sidewalk segments within 50 m; 2 street intersections within 100 m; 4 transit stops within a 400 m walk; 0 estimated access points across ~280 m of perimeter. low edge density, significant superblock penalty applied. Source coverage: centreline, pedestrian_network, transit_osm.

Streets within 25 m0

Intersections within 100 m2

Paths/walkways (50 m)0

Sidewalk segments (50 m)7

Transit stops (400 m)4

Estimated entrances0

Edge connections / 100 m perimeter0.00

Park perimeter280 m

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

Amenity Diversity

20% weightmeasured 75%

11.9 / 100

1 distinct amenity types in the park (community_centre). 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% weightpartial 45%

35.9 / 100

Natural-comfort components for this park: ~1.4% effective canopy (0.0% from contiguous tree polygons + scattered tree density); nearest waterbody ~256 m; 2 city-mapped trees inside the polygon (2.0/ha). Reading: exposed. Source coverage: waterbodies, street_trees. Impervious surface is approximated (Toronto's authoritative layer ships only as a raster GeoTIFF).

Canopy coverage0.0%

Canopy area0.00 ha

Inside ravine system0.0%

Water surface inside park0.0%

Nearest water (if outside park)256 m

Estimated green100.0%

City-mapped trees inside polygon2

Tree density2.0 / ha

Cover diversity (Shannon, 0 to 100)0.0

Sample points used31

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

Enclosure / Eyes on Park

10% weightmeasured 80%

73.1 / 100

23 buildings within 25 m of the park edge (3 mid-rise, 20 low-rise, 0 tower); avg edge height 7.7 m (~3 floors); 8.2 buildings per 100 m of 280 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 3 mid-rise edge buildings.

Buildings within 25 m23

Buildings within 50 m23

Avg edge height7.7 m (~3 floors)

Tallest edge building35.7 m

Mid-rise (3 to 7 floors)3

Low-rise (< 3 floors)20

Towers (≥ 13 floors)0

Frontage density8.21 per 100 m perimeter

Mid-rise share of edge13%

Tower share of edge0%

Blank-edge share (proxy)0%

Park perimeter280 m

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

Border Vacuum Risk

10% weightpartial 60%

24.0 risk

Border-vacuum factors within 50 m of the park: parking_lot, 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 (1 types · 1 records)

community centre

Nearby active-edge features (10)

community: East Scarborough Storefront0 m
parking lot0 m
parking lot43 m
transit stop: Overture Road48 m
transit stop: Overture Road55 m
parking lot76 m
parking lot124 m
transit stop: Galloway Road124 m
transit stop: Galloway Road153 m
parking lot162 m

Park profile

Five-axis radar across the structural dimensions.

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
32th
Edge activation
70th
Connectivity
23th
Amenity diversity
57th
Natural comfort
26th
Enclosure
76th

Most similar parks

Closest in metric space across the five structural dimensions.

East York Community GardenRavine / Naturalized Park35
Page ParketteUrban Plaza31
Driftwood ParketteUrban Plaza22
J.A. Leslie Tot LotUrban Plaza30
Smithwood ParkParkette31

Most opposite parks

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

Kew GardensNeighbourhood Park75
Leslie Grove ParkParkette73
Bellevue Square ParkCivic Square73
Toronto ZooWaterfront Park67
David Crombie ParkCorridor / Linear Park70

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 EAST SCARBOROUGH STOREFRONT - 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.

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.
Increase canopy and reduce paved area. Shade and water features extend usable hours and seasons.

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.