City Wide Open Space
Civic Square, below average overall (score 29, rank ~27th percentile). Strongest: connectivity; weakest: edge activation.
Aerial, City of Toronto orthophoto, ~8 cm/px source · cached 5/9/2026
City Wide Open Space scores 29.4 / 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 · 0.22 ha
What's here
Weighted across six dimensions · confidence 63%
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.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 (57) is above average and its amenity diversity (20) is also above-average (34 transit stops sit within a 400 m walk).
What limits this park
City Wide Open Space is held back by edge activation (0, bottom quartile): the surrounding streets carry too few active uses to spill into the park; border-vacuum risk is also elevated (100).
Most distinctive characteristic
Most distinctive feature: exceptionally low edge activation (0, bottom quartile).
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
- The park is enclosed by buildings (65) but the surrounding streets are quiet (edge activation 0): frame without animation.
Performance in context
- Reads as a modest underperformer relative to comparable parks (gap -8; cohort: pocket Civic Square).
Typology classification
Classified as Civic Square: tower-walled, low canopy (0%), tight frontage: reads as a civic square
Edge Activation
Within 100 m of the park edge: 20 active uses (transit_stop, cafe, restaurant) and 12 dead/hostile uses (highway, rail, 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 1 mapped paths/walkways and 18 sidewalk segments within 50 m; 4 street intersections within 100 m; 34 transit stops within a 400 m walk; 0 estimated access points across ~187 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
2 distinct amenity types in the park (garden, shelter). 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 requires inputs not yet loaded for this park (Treed Area / Ravine / Waterbodies / Street Trees). Score is held at a neutral 50 with low confidence. Read with caution.
Source: Treed Area / Ravine / Waterbodies / Street Trees
Enclosure / Eyes on Park
23 buildings within 25 m of the park edge (11 mid-rise, 1 low-rise, 11 tower); avg edge height 41.2 m (~14 floors); 12.3 buildings per 100 m of 187 m perimeter (strong frontage density); edges dominated by towers; 11 towers ≥ 40 m within 25 m of the edge. "Eyes on the park" come strongest from the 11 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, Line 1 Yonge-University, Queen's Park, Queen's Park, 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 (2 types · 5 records)
- garden
- shelter
Nearby active-edge features (61)
- transit stop: University / College Northeast Entrance0 m
- transit stop2 m
- highway: Queen's Park11 m
- transit stop: Queen's Park15 m
- transit stop: Queen's Park19 m
- rail: Line 1 Yonge-University20 m
- transit stop: Queen's Park20 m
- rail: Line 1 Yonge-University21 m
- highway: Queen's Park23 m
- highway: Queen's Park30 m
- highway: Queen's Park32 m
- transit stop: University / College Northwest Entrance40 m
- transit stop: College Street41 m
- transit stop: University Ave at College St - Queen's Park Station42 m
- highway: University Avenue43 m
- transit stop: University / College Southeast Entrance48 m
- transit stop: Queen's Park48 m
- transit stop: Queen's Park Cres East at College St North Side49 m
- transit stop: University Avenue52 m
- highway: Queen's Park55 m
- highway: University Avenue56 m
- transit stop: University Ave at College St - Queen's Park Station61 m
- transit stop: Queen's Park Cres East at College St North Side61 m
- transit stop: University / College Southwest Entrance66 m
- parking lot74 m
- parking lot74 m
- restaurant78 m
- transit stop: MaRS Discovery District78 m
- cafe: Starbucks80 m
- cafe: Tim Hortons85 m
- highway: Queen's Park Crescent East91 m
- restaurant: FLOCK rotisserie + greens100 m
- retail: Garry's Shoe Repair104 m
- cafe: 18feet107 m
- cafe: Aroma Espresso Bar107 m
- retail: Discovery Pharmacy111 m
- highway: University Avenue120 m
- retail: Ginkgo Floral Design123 m
- cafe: Tim Hortons125 m
- retail: Mode Line125 m
- retail: Medical Canada125 m
- retail: INS Market127 m
- highway: Queen's Park Crescent West129 m
- retail132 m
- retail: La Fete136 m
- parking lot140 m
- rail: Line 1 Yonge-University143 m
- restaurant: The Poke Box144 m
- restaurant: Subway144 m
- rail: Line 1 Yonge-University144 m
- restaurant: Manchu Wok146 m
- parking lot158 m
- parking lot159 m
- transit stop: Elizabeth Street164 m
- restaurant: Mercatto174 m
- parking lot181 m
- parking lot185 m
- highway: University Avenue186 m
- cafe: Starbucks194 m
- transit stop: Elizabeth Street198 m
- restaurant: The Sandwich Delight199 m
Park profile
Five-axis radar across the structural dimensions.
Citywide percentile ranks
Across all Toronto parks in the dataset.
- Overall vitality27th
- Edge activation16th
- Connectivity72th
- Amenity diversity66th
- Natural comfort56th
- Enclosure61th
Most similar parks
Closest in metric space across the five structural dimensions.
- Olive Square ParkCivic Square29
- PARKSIDE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL - Building GroundsNeighbourhood Park36
- Plowshare ParkNeighbourhood Park39
- Maberley ParketteRavine / Naturalized Park39
- Rowena ParkNeighbourhood Park37
Most opposite parks
Furthest in metric space. Useful for recognising what kind of park this isn’t.
- Leslie Grove ParkParkette73
- Arnell PlazaCivic Square50
- Kew GardensNeighbourhood Park75
- Bellevue Square ParkCivic Square73
- ALEX WILSON COMMUNITY GARDEN - Open Green SpaceUrban Plaza59
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 Spacematters. 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.
- 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.