North York Hydro Green Space
Neighbourhood Park, below average overall (score 28, rank ~22th percentile). Strongest: connectivity; weakest: natural comfort.
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Submit a photoAerial, City of Toronto orthophoto, ~8 cm/px source · cached 5/9/2026
Data updated
North York Hydro Green Space scores 28 / 100. Strongest dimensions: connectivity and enclosure / eyes on park. Weakest: amenity diversity (0). Border-vacuum risk is elevated (72). This score is a transparent reading of Jane Jacobs-style vitality factors, not a definitive judgment.
Area · 1.60 ha
Getting around
346 m of mapped path, 48% paved.
No steps mapped on the path network.
No seating mapped in OpenStreetMap.
Nearest parking 4 m away. None of the 10 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 59%
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 28 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
North York Hydro Green Space works because its connectivity score (69) is in the top tier and its enclosure (65) is also above-average (17 transit stops sit within a 400 m walk; 10 intersections fall within 100 m of the edge).
What limits this park
North York Hydro Green Space is held back by natural comfort (33, bottom quartile): only 0% canopy means little summer shade; border-vacuum risk is also elevated (72).
Most distinctive characteristic
Most distinctive feature: exceptionally high connectivity (69, top decile).
Jacobs reading
North York Hydro Green Space sits between an urban social park and an ecological retreat: moderately useful for both, exceptionally suited to neither.
Tradeoffs
- Connectivity (69) significantly outpaces natural comfort (33): well placed in the city but offers little shade or ecological respite.
- The park is enclosed by buildings (65) but the surrounding streets are quiet (edge activation 0): frame without animation.
- High connectivity coexists with high border-vacuum risk (72): much of that connectivity is to highways, rail, or parking lots, not to neighbourhoods.
Performance in context
- Strong underperformer relative to its cohort: raw 28 vs an expected 40 (gap -12).
Typology classification
Classified as Neighbourhood Park: 1.6 ha, framed by 6 mid-rise vs 0 towers
Edge Activation
Within 100 m of the park edge: 9 active uses (transit_stop, retail) and 8 dead/hostile uses (parking_lot, rail). Active edges keep "eyes on the park" through the day; parking lots, blank institutional walls, rail and highway frontages drain street life.
Source: OpenStreetMap: cafes, restaurants, shops, schools, community centres, transit, parking, highways, rail. All data sources.
Connectivity
Connectivity blends paths, intersections, transit, entrances, and edge density. This park has 3 mapped paths/walkways and 28 sidewalk segments within 50 m; 10 street intersections within 100 m; 1 subway or GO station, 2 streetcar or LRT stops, 14 bus stops within a 400 m walk; 2 estimated access points across ~518 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. All data sources.
Amenity Diversity
No amenities recorded.
Source: Toronto Parks & Recreation Facilities + OSM amenity tags. All data sources.
Natural Comfort
Natural-comfort components for this park: 0.0% estimated tree canopy; nearest waterbody ~1044 m; 2 city-mapped trees inside the polygon (1.3/ha). Reading: exposed. 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. All data sources.
Enclosure / Eyes on Park
9 buildings within 25 m of the park edge (6 mid-rise, 3 low-rise, 0 tower); avg edge height 13.7 m (~5 floors); 1.7 buildings per 100 m of 518 m perimeter (moderate frontage density); edges are at a Jacobs-scale walkable mid-rise (3 to 7 floors); no towers immediately adjacent. "Eyes on the park" come strongest from the 6 mid-rise edge buildings.
Source: Toronto 3D Massing (building footprints + heights). All data sources.
Border Vacuum Risk
Border-vacuum factors within 50 m of the park: parking_lot, parking_lot, parking_lot, rail, rail. 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: OpenStreetMap: highways, rail, parking. All data sources.
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: Not loaded yet: Toronto Neighbourhood Profiles. All data sources.
Amenities (0)
No amenities recorded for this park.
Nearby active-edge features (35)
- parking lot4 m
- transit stop: Keele St at Four Winds Drive11 m
- parking lot14 m
- rail19 m
- transit stop: Murray Ross Parkway at Columbia Gate27 m
- parking lot39 m
- rail45 m
- transit stop49 m
- transit stop49 m
- transit stop: Four Winds Drive - Finch West Station51 m
- retail62 m
- transit stop: Four Winds Drive74 m
- parking lot78 m
- transit stop: Keele St at Ross Murray Pkwy85 m
- transit stop: Finch West Station86 m
- parking lot92 m
- rail100 m
- transit stop: Finch West Station106 m
- parking lot110 m
- parking lot113 m
- transit stop: Finch West Station118 m
- parking lot: Finch West Parking123 m
- transit stop: Finch West131 m
- transit stop: Finch West133 m
- restaurant: District 45 Lounge141 m
- transit stop: Finch West Station145 m
- parking lot154 m
- retail: Lubricants Shop180 m
- parking lot184 m
- retail185 m
- retail: Access Motors186 m
- transit stop: Keele Street186 m
- retail: MUSE Massage Spa194 m
- restaurant: J's Bar & Restaurant199 m
- transit stop: Finch Avenue West North Side - Finch West Station199 m
Park profile
Five-axis radar across the structural dimensions.
Citywide percentile ranks
Across all Toronto parks in the dataset.
- Overall vitality22th
- Edge activation52th
- Connectivity91th
- Amenity diversity45th
- Natural comfort17th
- Enclosure61th
Most similar parks
Closest in metric space across the five structural dimensions.
- Goldhawk ParkCorridor / Linear Park32
- North York Hydro Green SpaceOther28
- Resthaven Memorial GardensCivic Square25
- Prospect CemeteryNeighbourhood Park26
- Paperbirch WalkwayCorridor / Linear Park35
Most opposite parks
Furthest in metric space. Useful for recognising what kind of park this isn’t.
- Kew GardensNeighbourhood Park76
- Toronto ZooWaterfront Park68
- Bellevue Square ParkCivic Square73
- Leslie Grove ParkParkette73
- Simcoe ParkTower-Community Green Space62
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 North York 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.
- 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: Green SpacesPolygon boundaries, official names, land classes. 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.
- OpenStreetMap (Overpass API)Cafés, restaurants, retail, transit stops, parking, highways, rail.