
Regent Park
Other, one of the city's strongest overall (score 57, rank ~98th percentile). Strongest: connectivity; weakest: enclosure.
Photo by Sajedur Rahman via Google Places · cached 5/9/2026
Regent Park scores 56.7 / 100. Strongest dimensions: connectivity and natural comfort. Weakest: edge activation (24.7). Border-vacuum risk is low. This score is a transparent reading of Jane Jacobs-style vitality factors, not a definitive judgment.
Area · 2.34 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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Boundary: OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).
Explain this score
Where did the 57 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
Regent Park works because its connectivity score (80) is one of the city's strongest and its amenity diversity (46) is also top decile (27 transit stops sit within a 400 m walk; 14 intersections fall within 100 m of the edge).
What limits this park
Regent Park 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 connectivity (80, top decile).
Jacobs reading
Regent Park 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 (64) but the surrounding streets are quiet (edge activation 25): frame without animation.
Performance in context
- This park is a strong overperformer for its cohort: raw 57 versus an expected 30 for similar parks (medium Other) (gap +27).
Typology classification
Classified as Other: does not meet any specific typology threshold (2.3 ha, 7 amenity types, frontage 8.8/100m)
Edge Activation
Within 100 m of the park edge: 16 active uses (restaurant, cafe, community, retail, transit_stop) and 6 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
Connectivity blends paths, intersections, transit, entrances, and edge density. This park has 29 mapped paths/walkways and 43 sidewalk segments within 50 m; 14 street intersections within 100 m; 27 transit stops within a 400 m walk; 9 estimated access points across ~647 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
7 distinct amenity types in the park (dog_area, playground, washroom, bench, drinking_water, 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: ~65.8% effective canopy (0.0% from contiguous tree polygons + scattered tree density); nearest waterbody ~512 m; 220 city-mapped trees inside the polygon (94.1/ha). Reading: well-shaded. Source coverage: waterbodies, 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
57 buildings within 25 m of the park edge (16 mid-rise, 20 low-rise, 21 tower); avg edge height 37.2 m (~12 floors); 8.8 buildings per 100 m of 647 m perimeter (strong frontage density); edges lean tall but still framed; 21 towers ≥ 40 m within 25 m of the edge. "Eyes on the park" come strongest from the 16 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. 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 (7 types · 21 records)
- dog area
- playground
- washroom
- bench
- drinking water
- garden
- pool
Nearby active-edge features (40)
- transit stop: Sumach Street10 m
- transit stop: Sumach Street13 m
- retail: Purple Factory30 m
- community: Daniels Spectrum35 m
- retail: Rogers36 m
- transit stop: Sackville Street37 m
- restaurant: Wendy's37 m
- parking lot38 m
- restaurant: Cafe Zuzu47 m
- restaurant: Popeyes50 m
- parking lot57 m
- retail: Wine Rack58 m
- parking lot59 m
- transit stop: Sackville Street61 m
- restaurant: Liberty Pizza69 m
- cafe: Tim Hortons70 m
- parking lot72 m
- restaurant: Subway75 m
- parking lot82 m
- retail: Circle K91 m
- cafe: Le Beau95 m
- parking lot98 m
- parking lot137 m
- parking lot139 m
- transit stop: Sumach Street150 m
- transit stop: Sackville Street151 m
- transit stop: Sackville Street152 m
- transit stop: Sumach Street154 m
- retail: Mississaugas of the Credit Medicine Wheel162 m
- retail: J & D Mart164 m
- cafe: Tim Hortons165 m
- retail: Jay's Garden167 m
- retail: Rabba180 m
- restaurant: Freddy's Greek182 m
- restaurant: Tahini's184 m
- retail: Pro League189 m
- retail: Busy Bee Spa189 m
- transit stop: River Street193 m
- parking lot195 m
- parking lot196 m
Park profile
Five-axis radar across the structural dimensions.
Citywide percentile ranks
Across all Toronto parks in the dataset.
- Overall vitality98th
- Edge activation80th
- Connectivity99th
- Amenity diversity95th
- Natural comfort84th
- Enclosure56th
Most similar parks
Closest in metric space across the five structural dimensions.
- Woolner ParkNeighbourhood Park51
- Westlake ParkRavine / Naturalized Park54
- Westmount ParkNeighbourhood Park54
- Adams ParkRavine / Naturalized Park56
- Sherbourne CommonCivic Square51
Most opposite parks
Furthest in metric space. Useful for recognising what kind of park this isn’t.
- Rouge ParkRavine / Naturalized Park18
- Trca Lands ( 58)Waterfront Park18
- Rouge ParkRavine / Naturalized Park21
- Toronto Islands - Muggs Island ParkRavine / Naturalized Park25
- Trca Lands ( 26)Ravine / Naturalized Park27
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 Regent 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.
- Diversify what people can do in the park (playground, washroom, water, shade, performance, sport, garden): even small additions raise this score.
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.