Harold Town Park
Urban Plaza, in the top tier overall (score 48, rank ~91th percentile). Strongest: enclosure; weakest: natural comfort.
Aerial, City of Toronto orthophoto, ~8 cm/px source · cached 5/9/2026
Harold Town Park scores 47.9 / 100. Strongest dimensions: enclosure / eyes on park and connectivity. Weakest: amenity diversity (21). Border-vacuum risk is low. This score is a transparent reading of Jane Jacobs-style vitality factors, not a definitive judgment.
Area · 0.15 ha
What's here
Weighted across six dimensions · confidence 70%
Scores are not bell-curved. Percentiles and expected scores provide context without changing the underlying model.
Loading map…
The parks map is loading.Boundary: OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).
Explain this score
Where did the 48 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
Harold Town Park works because its enclosure score (88) is in the top tier and its edge activation (27) is also top quartile (28 mid-rise buildings frame the edge with passive surveillance).
What limits this park
Harold Town Park doesn't have a clear weakness. Every measured dimension is at or above the middle of the pack.
Most distinctive characteristic
Most distinctive feature: exceptionally high enclosure (88, top decile).
Jacobs reading
Harold Town Park sits between an urban social park and an ecological retreat: moderately useful for both, exceptionally suited to neither.
Performance in context
- A modest overperformer for its urban plaza typology (+10 vs the median in pocket Urban Plaza).
Typology classification
Classified as Urban Plaza: 1481 m², paved (11% canopy), 34.1 buildings/100 m
Edge Activation
Within 100 m of the park edge: 12 active uses (retail, restaurant, transit_stop) and 5 dead/hostile uses (parking_lot, rail, highway). 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 11 sidewalk segments within 50 m; 10 street intersections within 100 m; 27 transit stops within a 400 m walk; 0 estimated access points across ~158 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 (bench, garden). 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: 10.5% estimated tree canopy; 15.8% inside the ravine system; nearest waterbody ~966 m. Reading: exposed. Source coverage: treed_area, ravine, 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
54 buildings within 25 m of the park edge (28 mid-rise, 17 low-rise, 9 tower); avg edge height 24.0 m (~8 floors); 34.1 buildings per 100 m of 158 m perimeter (strong frontage density); edges lean tall but still framed; 9 towers ≥ 40 m within 25 m of the edge. "Eyes on the park" come strongest from the 28 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 (2 types · 3 records)
- bench
- garden
Nearby active-edge features (75)
- retail: Vivid Cleaners & Alterations40 m
- parking lot48 m
- restaurant: El Gourmet51 m
- rail59 m
- rail59 m
- restaurant: Kiro Sushi71 m
- retail: Beauté d’Amour Nails Studio84 m
- retail: Topcuts84 m
- restaurant: Pizza Hut Express85 m
- restaurant: Lee Chen Asian Bistro87 m
- restaurant: Burrito Boyz88 m
- restaurant: Mamma's Pizza88 m
- retail: Weedjar88 m
- parking lot89 m
- retail: Canadian Tire90 m
- transit stop: Church Street94 m
- highway: Yonge Street100 m
- highway: Yonge Street101 m
- highway: Yonge Street107 m
- retail: Party City108 m
- parking lot109 m
- highway: Yonge Street110 m
- retail: Rabba111 m
- restaurant: Fat Lamb Kouzina Homemade Greek Food116 m
- restaurant: Randy’s Roti & Doubles116 m
- retail: The Vaper Store117 m
- highway: Yonge Street117 m
- cafe: Café Rosarium118 m
- retail: Solo Bace122 m
- retail: TCAF Shop122 m
- parking lot124 m
- cafe: Tim Hortons124 m
- transit stop: Davenport Road125 m
- cafe: Coffee Balzac's Roasters127 m
- transit stop127 m
- restaurant: Villa Madina133 m
- retail: Infinity Mart133 m
- restaurant: Yorkville Crepes134 m
- restaurant: Subway134 m
- retail: Big Bee139 m
- retail: Canadian Tire Auto Service140 m
- restaurant: Greenhouse142 m
- restaurant: Thaï Express145 m
- retail: Mille Luce Designs Inc.146 m
- restaurant: BiBab Express Sushi & Rolls150 m
- parking lot150 m
- retail151 m
- retail: Petit Pied Kids153 m
- restaurant: A&W156 m
- cafe: Tim Hortons157 m
- restaurant: Crown & Dragon Restaurant159 m
- restaurant: Salad Days164 m
- restaurant: Manchu Wok165 m
- restaurant: Caffe Di Portici173 m
- retail: Dr. Bernstein Diet & Health Clinics175 m
- highway: Yonge Street180 m
- restaurant: Booster Juice180 m
- parking lot181 m
- retail182 m
- retail184 m
- parking lot185 m
- retail: Skin Vitality186 m
- retail: INS Market187 m
- retail: LCBO187 m
- retail: Print Pros188 m
- restaurant: The Bagel Stop189 m
- school: The Dalton School190 m
- transit stop: Bloor-Yonge190 m
- transit stop190 m
- restaurant: Jack Astor's191 m
- retail: Stylessence Fine Jewellery194 m
- retail: Fido197 m
- retail: Orchards Marketplace198 m
- cafe: Le Gourmand Café198 m
- retail: Dollarama199 m
Park profile
Five-axis radar across the structural dimensions.
Citywide percentile ranks
Across all Toronto parks in the dataset.
- Overall vitality91th
- Edge activation86th
- Connectivity72th
- Amenity diversity73th
- Natural comfort70th
- Enclosure94th
Most similar parks
Closest in metric space across the five structural dimensions.
- City Wide Open SpaceUrban Plaza47
- Primrose Avenue ParketteUrban Plaza45
- Joseph Workman ParkUrban Plaza49
- Monsignor Fraser College ParkUrban Plaza47
- Robert Bateman ParketteRavine / Naturalized Park48
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
- Rouge ParkWaterfront Park25
- Trca Lands ( 26)Ravine / Naturalized Park27
- 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 Harold Town 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.
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.