Mccleary Playground
Urban Plaza, above average overall (score 42, rank ~83th percentile). Strongest: enclosure; weakest: natural comfort.
Aerial — City of Toronto orthophoto, ~8 cm/px source · cached 5/9/2026
Mccleary Playground scores 42.2 / 100. Strongest dimensions: enclosure / eyes on park and connectivity. Weakest: amenity diversity (11.9). Border-vacuum risk is elevated (36). This score is a transparent reading of Jane Jacobs-style vitality factors — not a definitive judgment.
Area · 0.10 ha
Weighted across six dimensions · confidence 70%
Scores are not bell-curved. Percentiles and expected scores provide context without changing the underlying model.
Explain this score
Where did the 42 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 (85) but the surrounding streets are quiet (edge activation 17) — frame without animation.
Performance in context
- A modest overperformer for its urban plaza typology (+6 vs the median in pocket Urban Plaza).
Typology classification
Classified as Urban Plaza: 1028 m², paved (14% canopy), 23.9 buildings/100 m
Edge Activation
Within 100 m of the park edge: 8 active uses (retail, restaurant, cafe, transit_stop) and 5 dead/hostile uses (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 5 mapped paths/walkways and 5 sidewalk segments within 50 m; 15 street intersections within 100 m; 10 transit stops within a 400 m walk; 3 estimated access points across ~192 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
1 distinct amenity types in the park (playground). 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: 14.3% estimated tree canopy; nearest waterbody ~646 m; 3 city-mapped trees inside the polygon (3.0/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
46 buildings within 25 m of the park edge (11 mid-rise, 35 low-rise, 0 tower); avg edge height 7.7 m (~3 floors); 23.9 buildings per 100 m of 192 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 11 mid-rise edge buildings.
Source: Toronto 3D Massing (building footprints + heights)
Border Vacuum Risk
Border-vacuum factors within 50 m of the park: Kingston Subdivision, Kingston Subdivision. 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 (1 types · 1 records)
- playground
Nearby active-edge features (41)
- rail — Kingston Subdivision11 m
- rail — Kingston Subdivision14 m
- retail — K.L. Coin Co.49 m
- retail — Bonjour Brioche62 m
- restaurant — Tabule69 m
- parking lot69 m
- rail — Kingston Subdivision78 m
- retail — Jimmy's Coffee79 m
- rail — Kingston Subdivision81 m
- transit stop — Empire Avenue83 m
- transit stop — Boulton Avenue83 m
- retail — Dirty Pawz84 m
- cafe — Tim Hortons91 m
- retail — Hair by Banks & Co104 m
- transit stop — Saulter Street106 m
- retail — Glassbox Barbershop111 m
- restaurant — Chez Nous111 m
- retail — Thyme Studio117 m
- cafe — Amber Kitchen and Coffee118 m
- retail — Teimuri Bespoke Tailoring122 m
- transit stop — Empire Avenue125 m
- retail — Arts Market128 m
- transit stop132 m
- retail — Papas Laundry134 m
- cafe — Queen Garden Cafe137 m
- restaurant — Kismet141 m
- restaurant — Lacarnita149 m
- retail — LCBO156 m
- parking lot161 m
- retail — Dollarama165 m
- community — Ralph Thornton Community Center172 m
- retail — Good Juice Box Vintage174 m
- restaurant — The Castle on Queen179 m
- retail — Pet Valu181 m
- retail — Waxon183 m
- retail — Common Sort190 m
- retail — Stephenson's Rental Services193 m
- restaurant — Royal Baithak194 m
- retail — Hooked195 m
- restaurant — The Comrade196 m
- retail198 m
Park profile
Five-axis radar across the structural dimensions.
Citywide percentile ranks
Across all Toronto parks in the dataset.
- Overall vitality83th
- Edge activation77th
- Connectivity78th
- Amenity diversity84th
- Natural comfort67th
- Enclosure91th
Most similar parks
Closest in metric space across the five structural dimensions.
- BOWMORE PUBLIC SCHOOL - Building GroundsNeighbourhood Park46
- Langford ParketteParkette45
- Skeens Lane ParketteUrban Plaza42
- SWANSEA COMMUNITY RECREATION CENTRE - Building GroundsRavine / Naturalized Park41
- Stanley G. Grizzle ParkUrban Plaza46
Most opposite parks
Furthest in metric space — useful for recognising what kind of park this isn’t.
- Toronto Islands - Muggs Island ParkRavine / Naturalized Park25
- Rouge ParkRavine / Naturalized Park21
- Trca Lands ( 26)Ravine / Naturalized Park27
- Rouge ParkWaterfront Park25
- Rouge ParkRavine / Naturalized Park28
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 Mccleary Playgroundmatters. 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.
- 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.