Stephenson Park
Athletic / Recreation Park, above average overall (score 41, rank ~80th percentile). Strongest: amenity diversity; weakest: natural comfort.
Photo by n fik via Google Places · cached 5/9/2026
Stephenson Park scores 41.2 / 100. Strongest dimensions: enclosure / eyes on park and connectivity. Weakest: edge activation (0). Border-vacuum risk is low. This score is a transparent reading of Jane Jacobs-style vitality factors — not a definitive judgment.
Area · 1.22 ha
Weighted across six dimensions · confidence 72%
Scores are not bell-curved. Percentiles and expected scores provide context without changing the underlying model.
Street context
Park polygon highlighted on the citywide map. Connectivity, transit, and edge conditions read at a glance.
Top-down view
City of Toronto orthophoto, ~8 cm/px. Reads the park’s footprint, paths, treed area, and edge conditions from above.
City of Toronto Orthophoto · cot_ortho most-current MapServer
Explain this score
Where did the 41 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
What limits this park
Most distinctive characteristic
Jacobs reading
Tradeoffs
- The park is enclosed by buildings (74) but the surrounding streets are quiet (edge activation 0) — frame without animation.
Performance in context
- Citywide rank is high (80th) but typology rank is more modest (46th) — the strength likely comes from the dataset average pulling lower than this typology’s baseline.
Typology classification
Classified as Athletic / Recreation Park: 67% of amenity types are athletic (sports_field, tennis). Secondary read: Neighbourhood Park (1.2 ha, framed by 5 mid-rise vs 0 towers).
Edge Activation
Within 100 m of the park edge: 0 active uses (none) and 4 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: OSM POIs (amenity/shop) + Toronto Building Footprints + land use
Connectivity
Connectivity blends paths, intersections, transit, entrances, and edge density. This park has 5 mapped paths/walkways and 6 sidewalk segments within 50 m; 15 street intersections within 100 m; 28 transit stops within a 400 m walk; 3 estimated access points across ~444 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 (playground, sports_field, tennis). 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: 5.7% estimated tree canopy; nearest waterbody ~1014 m; 11 city-mapped trees inside the polygon (9.0/ha). Reading: exposed. Source coverage: treed_area, 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
87 buildings within 25 m of the park edge (5 mid-rise, 82 low-rise, 0 tower); avg edge height 6.6 m (~2 floors); 19.6 buildings per 100 m of 444 m perimeter — strong frontage density; edges are low-rise (mostly 2–3 floors); no towers immediately adjacent. "Eyes on the park" come strongest from the 5 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" — they 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 · 3 records)
- playground
- sports field
- tennis
Nearby active-edge features (49)
- parking lot30 m
- rail — Kingston Subdivision98 m
- rail — Kingston Subdivision99 m
- parking lot99 m
- parking lot104 m
- parking lot117 m
- parking lot118 m
- transit stop — Danforth124 m
- retail — Real Bargain131 m
- highway — Danforth Avenue132 m
- rail — Kingston Subdivision133 m
- highway — Danforth Avenue134 m
- highway — Danforth Avenue135 m
- retail — Danforth Picture Frames137 m
- retail — Danforth Village139 m
- parking lot140 m
- highway — Danforth Avenue143 m
- transit stop — Danforth146 m
- retail — ASM Wireless148 m
- retail — Beauty One149 m
- retail — Perfume Depot & Cosmetics150 m
- highway — Danforth Avenue151 m
- retail — Selam Furniture & Mattress152 m
- retail — Many Chances Health Spa152 m
- cafe — Press Books Coffee Vinyl152 m
- retail — Budside Cannabis Store152 m
- retail152 m
- retail — NaNa Florist153 m
- retail153 m
- retail — Yonges E-Bikes153 m
- retail — Wellwise154 m
- rail — Kingston Subdivision156 m
- rail — Kingston Subdivision156 m
- rail — Kingston Subdivision157 m
- retail — Vincenzo Supermarket158 m
- retail — A to Z Discount159 m
- highway — Danforth Avenue165 m
- retail — A+ Cut165 m
- highway — Danforth Avenue166 m
- retail174 m
- retail — Hakim Optical175 m
- parking lot176 m
- parking lot177 m
- transit stop — Danforth Avenue178 m
- highway — Danforth Avenue187 m
- restaurant — Golden Pizza188 m
- highway — Danforth Avenue193 m
- transit stop — Danforth Avenue194 m
- transit stop — Danforth Avenue194 m
Park profile
Five-axis radar across the structural dimensions.
Citywide percentile ranks
Across all Toronto parks in the dataset.
- Overall vitality80th
- Edge activation50th
- Connectivity81th
- Amenity diversity95th
- Natural comfort44th
- Enclosure75th
Most similar parks
Closest in metric space across the five structural dimensions.
- ANTIBES COMMUNITY CENTRE - Building GroundsAthletic / Recreation Park39
- Park Lawn ParkAthletic / Recreation Park38
- Howard Talbot ParkAthletic / Recreation Park34
- Leaside ParkAthletic / Recreation Park33
- Dennis Flynn ParkNeighbourhood Park39
Most opposite parks
Furthest in metric space — useful for recognising what kind of park this isn’t.
- Simcoe ParkTower-Community Green Space51
- Trca Lands ( 26)Ravine / Naturalized Park27
- Market Lane ParkUrban Plaza63
- Toronto Islands - Muggs Island ParkRavine / Naturalized Park25
- Mclevin Woods ParkRavine / Naturalized Park49
Visitor signals
Public attention measured by Google Places aggregates. This proxies attention, not occupancy. Aggregate-only — no usernames, no review text, no extra photos beyond the cached hero.
p75 citywide · p71 within Athletic / Recreation Park
Source: Google Places API · match high (0.98 composite confidence) · last refreshed 5/9/2026. Privacy contract. Measures public attention, not occupancy.
Human activity signals
Programming, social attention, temporal rhythm, and nearby pedestrian / cycling flow. An experimental aggregate layer that complements the spatial scores — partial coverage, partial confidence.
Activity reading: no inputs available. The strongest signal is public attention / mentions. Source coverage: google-places.
Does this score feel accurate?
Your read of Stephenson 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.
- 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.
- 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.