Carlaw Avenue Parkette
Parkette, one of the city's strongest overall (score 50, rank ~96th percentile). Strongest: enclosure; weakest: edge activation.
Aerial — City of Toronto orthophoto, ~8 cm/px source · cached 5/9/2026
Carlaw Avenue Parkette scores 50.3 / 100. Strongest dimensions: enclosure / eyes on park and natural comfort. Weakest: amenity diversity (11.9). Border-vacuum risk is low. This score is a transparent reading of Jane Jacobs-style vitality factors — not a definitive judgment.
Area · 0.12 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 50 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 (96) but the surrounding streets are quiet (edge activation 22) — frame without animation.
Performance in context
- This park is a strong overperformer for its cohort — raw 50 versus an expected 31 for similar parks (pocket Parkette) (gap +19).
Typology classification
Classified as Parkette: small (1203 m²) with strong building frontage (58.3 per 100 m)
Edge Activation
Within 100 m of the park edge: 36 active uses (retail, restaurant, transit_stop, cafe) and 8 dead/hostile uses (parking_lot, 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 2 mapped paths/walkways and 9 sidewalk segments within 50 m; 12 street intersections within 100 m; 20 transit stops within a 400 m walk; 2 estimated access points across ~196 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: 70.0% estimated tree canopy; nearest waterbody ~1109 m; 6 city-mapped trees inside the polygon (6.0/ha). Reading: well-shaded. 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
114 buildings within 25 m of the park edge (22 mid-rise, 89 low-rise, 3 tower); avg edge height 10.0 m (~3 floors); 58.3 buildings per 100 m of 196 m perimeter — strong frontage density; edges are at a Jacobs-scale walkable mid-rise (3–7 floors); 3 towers ≥ 40 m within 25 m of the edge. "Eyes on the park" come strongest from the 22 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 (1 types · 1 records)
- playground
Nearby active-edge features (80)
- parking lot36 m
- cafe — Canela47 m
- parking lot53 m
- retail59 m
- restaurant — Village Juicery59 m
- retail — Kostatex59 m
- restaurant — Smoke's Poutinerie59 m
- restaurant — Bagel Time59 m
- cafe — Starbucks60 m
- restaurant — Rivals Sports Pub60 m
- retail60 m
- restaurant — Simone's60 m
- retail — Healthy Planet60 m
- restaurant — Katsu Sushi60 m
- restaurant — Il Fornello61 m
- transit stop — Carlaw Avenue67 m
- restaurant — Pizzeria Libretto69 m
- retail — Re-Reading72 m
- highway — Danforth Avenue75 m
- highway — Danforth Avenue76 m
- retail — Moss76 m
- highway — Danforth Avenue76 m
- parking lot78 m
- highway — Danforth Avenue81 m
- retail — iQLiving81 m
- cafe — 6Thirty Coffee and Co.84 m
- transit stop — Carlaw Avenue88 m
- retail — Strictly Bulk88 m
- retail93 m
- retail — GSM Cellphones93 m
- retail — Treasure Island Toys93 m
- retail — Kitchen Stuff Plus93 m
- retail — Wine Rack94 m
- restaurant — Tapp’s Bar and Restaurant94 m
- retail — Ocean's Treasures94 m
- retail94 m
- retail — Carpe Diem95 m
- retail — New Balance95 m
- retail — The Friendly Vapor96 m
- restaurant — The Ballyhoo Public House97 m
- retail — Foodland98 m
- highway — Danforth Avenue98 m
- restaurant — Swiss Chalet99 m
- restaurant — Sinaloa Factory99 m
- retail — RE/MAX100 m
- restaurant — Ramen Buta-Nibo101 m
- cafe — Monopol Cafe103 m
- restaurant — Souv Like103 m
- retail — Eighth Cannabis104 m
- transit stop — Lipton Avenue105 m
- retail — Volume Hair Salon106 m
- restaurant — Royalty Cuisine Shawarma106 m
- restaurant — The Fox&Fiddle112 m
- parking lot113 m
- retail — Popeye's Supplements118 m
- transit stop — Pape Ave at Danforth Ave122 m
- retail — Sophia's Lingerie122 m
- transit stop123 m
- highway — Danforth Avenue123 m
- transit stop — Pape Avenue124 m
- retail — Good Brothers Fruits Market124 m
- cafe — Tim Hortons126 m
- restaurant — Tacos Moras126 m
- highway — Danforth Avenue129 m
- restaurant — Chef Mustafa131 m
- cafe — 521 Cafe & Bar131 m
- transit stop — Pape Avenue135 m
- retail — Lucky Spot136 m
- restaurant — A&W140 m
- restaurant — Casa Manila142 m
- transit stop — Pape Avenue142 m
- highway — Danforth Avenue143 m
- transit stop — Pape Ave at Danforth Ave149 m
- restaurant — Estiatorio Soulas150 m
- transit stop — Pape150 m
- transit stop — Pape150 m
- restaurant — Mary Brown's151 m
- retail — Circle K155 m
- restaurant — Koh Samiji156 m
- retail — Jade Thread and Wax Bar157 m
Park profile
Five-axis radar across the structural dimensions.
Citywide percentile ranks
Across all Toronto parks in the dataset.
- Overall vitality96th
- Edge activation79th
- Connectivity80th
- Amenity diversity83th
- Natural comfort88th
- Enclosure99th
Most similar parks
Closest in metric space across the five structural dimensions.
- Suydam ParkRavine / Naturalized Park52
- Wishing Well WoodsRavine / Naturalized Park47
- Beecroft Linear ParkCorridor / Linear Park52
- Ravina GardensRavine / Naturalized Park47
- Ormskirk ParkRavine / Naturalized Park50
Most opposite parks
Furthest in metric space — useful for recognising what kind of park this isn’t.
- Rouge ParkRavine / Naturalized Park18
- Trca Lands ( 58)Waterfront Park18
- Rouge ParkRavine / Naturalized Park21
- City Wide Open SpaceWaterfront Park21
- Rouge ParkRavine / Naturalized Park19
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 Carlaw Avenue Parkettematters. 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.
- 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.