Scarborough Hydro Green Space
Neighbourhood Park, middle of the pack overall (score 34, rank ~47th percentile). Strongest: connectivity; weakest: natural comfort.
Aerial, City of Toronto orthophoto, ~8 cm/px source · cached 5/9/2026
Scarborough Hydro Green Space scores 33.7 / 100. Strongest dimensions: connectivity and enclosure / eyes on park. Weakest: amenity diversity (0). Border-vacuum risk is low. This score is a transparent reading of Jane Jacobs-style vitality factors, not a definitive judgment.
Area · 10.93 ha
Getting around
799 m of mapped path, 100% paved.
No steps mapped on the path network.
No seating mapped in OpenStreetMap.
Nearest parking 16 m away. None of the 3 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 56%
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 34 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
Scarborough Hydro Green Space works because its connectivity score (67) is in the top tier and its edge activation (9) is also above-average (14 transit stops sit within a 400 m walk; 14 intersections fall within 100 m of the edge).
What limits this park
Scarborough Hydro Green Space is held back by natural comfort (24, bottom quartile): only 0% canopy means little summer shade.
Most distinctive characteristic
Most distinctive feature: exceptionally low natural comfort (24, bottom quartile).
Jacobs reading
Scarborough Hydro Green Space sits between an urban social park and an ecological retreat: moderately useful for both, exceptionally suited to neither.
Tradeoffs
- Connectivity (67) significantly outpaces natural comfort (24): well placed in the city but offers little shade or ecological respite.
Performance in context
- Reads as a modest underperformer relative to comparable parks (gap -6; cohort: large Neighbourhood Park).
- Citywide rank is high (47th) but typology rank is more modest (23rd): the strength likely comes from the dataset average pulling lower than this typology’s baseline.
Typology classification
Classified as Neighbourhood Park: 10.9 ha, framed by 0 mid-rise vs 0 towers
Edge Activation
Within 100 m of the park edge: 2 active uses (transit_stop) and 2 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 6 mapped paths/walkways and 37 sidewalk segments within 50 m; 14 street intersections within 100 m; 14 transit stops within a 400 m walk; 6 estimated access points across ~1,576 m of perimeter. low edge density, significant superblock penalty applied. Source coverage: centreline, pedestrian_network, transit_osm.
Source: Toronto Centreline V2 + Pedestrian Network + OSM transit stops
Amenity Diversity
No amenities recorded. Score is 0 until inventory is loaded.
Source: Toronto Parks & Recreation Facilities + OSM amenity tags
Natural Comfort
Natural-comfort components for this park: 0.0% estimated tree canopy; nearest waterbody ~746 m. Reading: exposed. Source coverage: waterbodies. 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
164 buildings within 25 m of the park edge (0 mid-rise, 164 low-rise, 0 tower); avg edge height 3.9 m (~1 floors); 10.4 buildings per 100 m of 1,576 m perimeter (strong frontage density); edges are barely there or single-storey; no towers immediately adjacent. "Eyes on the park" come strongest from the 0 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 (0)
No amenities recorded for this park.
Nearby active-edge features (7)
- parking lot16 m
- transit stop: Bellamy Rd N at Jarwick Dr53 m
- parking lot70 m
- transit stop: Bellamy Rd N at Benleigh Dr88 m
- transit stop: Pandora Circle114 m
- parking lot119 m
- transit stop: Bellamy Rd N at Brimorton Dr165 m
Park profile
Five-axis radar across the structural dimensions.
Citywide percentile ranks
Across all Toronto parks in the dataset.
- Overall vitality47th
- Edge activation69th
- Connectivity87th
- Amenity diversity43th
- Natural comfort6th
- Enclosure30th
Most similar parks
Closest in metric space across the five structural dimensions.
- Scarborough Hydro Green SpaceCorridor / Linear Park23
- Southern Linear ParkCorridor / Linear Park23
- Scarborough Hydro Green SpaceParkette33
- Etobicoke Hydro Green SpaceNeighbourhood Park22
- Scarborough Hydro Green SpaceOther21
Most opposite parks
Furthest in metric space. Useful for recognising what kind of park this isn’t.
- Kew GardensNeighbourhood Park75
- Toronto ZooWaterfront Park67
- Leslie Grove ParkParkette73
- Bellevue Square ParkCivic Square73
- Shaw ParkParkette69
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 Scarborough Hydro Green 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.
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.