Hillsdale Avenue Park
Urban Plaza, above average overall (score 44, rank ~85th percentile). Strongest: enclosure; weakest: natural comfort.
Hillsdale Avenue Park scores 44.2 / 100. Strongest dimensions: enclosure / eyes on park and connectivity. Weakest: edge activation (25.3). Border-vacuum risk is low. This score is a transparent reading of Jane Jacobs-style vitality factors, not a definitive judgment.
Area · 0.15 ha
What's here
Weighted across six dimensions · confidence 68%
Scores are not bell-curved. Percentiles and expected scores provide context without changing the underlying model.
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The parks map is loading.Boundary: OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).
Explain this score
Where did the 44 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
Hillsdale Avenue Park works because its enclosure score (91) is one of the city's strongest and its edge activation (25) is also top quartile (14 mid-rise buildings frame the edge with passive surveillance).
What limits this park
.
Most distinctive characteristic
Most distinctive feature: exceptionally high enclosure (91, top decile).
Jacobs reading
Hillsdale Avenue Park sits between an urban social park and an ecological retreat: moderately useful for both, exceptionally suited to neither.
Tradeoffs
- 13 nearby towers cast wind and shadow without contributing canopy: passive surveillance is plentiful but human-scale comfort is not.
Performance in context
- A modest overperformer for its urban plaza typology (+7 vs the median in pocket Urban Plaza).
Typology classification
Classified as Urban Plaza: 1510 m², paved (8% canopy), 35.1 buildings/100 m
Edge Activation
Within 100 m of the park edge: 26 active uses (retail, restaurant, cafe, transit_stop) and 7 dead/hostile uses (parking_lot, highway). 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 0 mapped paths/walkways and 3 sidewalk segments within 50 m; 6 street intersections within 100 m; 40 transit stops within a 400 m walk; 0 estimated access points across ~228 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
3 distinct amenity types in the park (bench, drinking_water, picnic). 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: 8.3% estimated tree canopy. Reading: exposed. Source coverage: treed_area. 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
80 buildings within 25 m of the park edge (14 mid-rise, 53 low-rise, 13 tower); avg edge height 18.3 m (~6 floors); 35.1 buildings per 100 m of 228 m perimeter (strong frontage density); edges are at a Jacobs-scale walkable mid-rise (3 to 7 floors); 13 towers ≥ 40 m within 25 m of the edge. "Eyes on the park" come strongest from the 14 mid-rise edge buildings.
Source: Toronto 3D Massing (building footprints + heights)
Border Vacuum 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
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 (3 types · 9 records)
- bench
- drinking water
- picnic
Nearby active-edge features (80)
- retail: Farm Boy28 m
- parking lot45 m
- cafe: Hale Coffee46 m
- parking lot50 m
- retail: Staples54 m
- retail: west elm55 m
- retail: Wine Rack55 m
- cafe: Sisters Café63 m
- parking lot65 m
- restaurant: Sansotei Ramen66 m
- restaurant: Oretta68 m
- transit stop: Yonge St at Soudan Ave68 m
- highway: Yonge Street74 m
- retail: easyfinancial77 m
- highway: Yonge Street78 m
- highway: Yonge Street78 m
- restaurant: Samba79 m
- retail: iRepair.ca82 m
- transit stop: Berwick Avenue83 m
- restaurant: Social Llama84 m
- highway: Yonge Street85 m
- retail: Alma Natural Quick Spa87 m
- restaurant: Maki Mart89 m
- retail: Hunny Pot Cannabis90 m
- retail: Hunny Pot Cannabis92 m
- retail: Bean Wise93 m
- restaurant: Ramyun Korean Snack Bar94 m
- retail: Fogtown95 m
- restaurant: Juicy Dumpling97 m
- cafe: Togo Coffee97 m
- retail: Fuze98 m
- restaurant: Mia Brunch Bar98 m
- retail: Mode Hair Studio For Men99 m
- retail: Rogers100 m
- retail: Kitchen Stuff Plus105 m
- restaurant: PI CO. Pizza Bar109 m
- parking lot112 m
- parking lot112 m
- retail: Super Unique113 m
- retail: Wrench Works Bicycles116 m
- highway: Yonge Street116 m
- highway: Yonge Street116 m
- retail: Untitled116 m
- retail: Sight Care Optometry & Optical120 m
- restaurant: Zezafoun122 m
- transit stop: Eglinton Station124 m
- transit stop: 2190 Yonge St (Eglinton Station)125 m
- transit stop: Opposite 2190 Yonge St125 m
- transit stop: Eglinton Station125 m
- retail: Global Pet Foods128 m
- transit stop: Eglinton Station131 m
- rail: Line 1 Yonge-University133 m
- rail: Line 1 Yonge-University133 m
- parking lot137 m
- transit stop: Eglinton Station140 m
- transit stop: Manor Road West141 m
- parking lot143 m
- restaurant: Padaria143 m
- retail: Midnight Cookie145 m
- restaurant: Popeyes146 m
- transit stop: Yonge St Entrance150 m
- transit stop: Eglinton Station150 m
- retail: Potato Skins154 m
- transit stop: Manor Road East157 m
- retail: Belsize Cleaners160 m
- restaurant: The Keg160 m
- transit stop: Eglinton Station163 m
- retail: Yes Again Bins163 m
- parking lot170 m
- retail: Peppermills170 m
- highway: Yonge Street171 m
- retail: Skiis and Biikes172 m
- retail: Poor Little Rich Girl177 m
- retail: Chloe Alterations180 m
- restaurant: Kadak Vibrant Indian Cuisine182 m
- restaurant: Hokkaido Ramen Satouka183 m
- highway: Yonge Street184 m
- parking lot: Impark185 m
- restaurant: Mariachi's Mexican Cuisine188 m
- retail: The Butcher's Son189 m
Park profile
Five-axis radar across the structural dimensions.
Citywide percentile ranks
Across all Toronto parks in the dataset.
- Overall vitality85th
- Edge activation85th
- Connectivity49th
- Amenity diversity80th
- Natural comfort45th
- Enclosure97th
Most similar parks
Closest in metric space across the five structural dimensions.
- Paul Kane House ParketteUrban Plaza43
- Close Avenue ParketteUrban Plaza44
- Children's Healing GardenUrban Plaza38
- Melbourne Avenue ParketteUrban Plaza44
- Monsignor Fraser College ParkUrban Plaza47
Most opposite parks
Furthest in metric space. Useful for recognising what kind of park this isn’t.
- Toronto Islands - Muggs Island ParkRavine / Naturalized Park25
- Rouge ParkWaterfront Park25
- Trca Lands ( 26)Ravine / Naturalized Park27
- Rouge ParkRavine / Naturalized Park28
- Rouge ParkRavine / Naturalized Park21
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 Hillsdale Avenue Parkmatters. 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
- 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.