Willowdale Cemetery
Urban Plaza, near the bottom of the city overall (score 24, rank ~10th percentile). Strongest: enclosure; weakest: natural comfort.
Aerial — City of Toronto orthophoto, ~8 cm/px source · cached 5/9/2026
Willowdale Cemetery scores 24 / 100. Strongest dimensions: enclosure / eyes on park and connectivity. Weakest: amenity diversity (0). Border-vacuum risk is elevated (66). This score is a transparent reading of Jane Jacobs-style vitality factors — not a definitive judgment.
Area · 0.25 ha
Weighted across six dimensions · confidence 56%
Scores are not bell-curved. Percentiles and expected scores provide context without changing the underlying model.
Explain this score
Where did the 24 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
- Connectivity (51) significantly outpaces natural comfort (22) — well placed in the city but offers little shade or ecological respite.
- The park is enclosed by buildings (70) but the surrounding streets are quiet (edge activation 0) — frame without animation.
- 10 nearby towers cast wind and shadow without contributing canopy — passive surveillance is plentiful but human-scale comfort is not.
Performance in context
- Strong underperformer relative to its cohort — raw 24 vs an expected 36 (gap -12).
Typology classification
Classified as Urban Plaza: 2456 m², paved (0% canopy), 13.3 buildings/100 m
Edge Activation
Within 100 m of the park edge: 34 active uses (retail, transit_stop, restaurant, cafe) and 11 dead/hostile uses (highway, 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 0 mapped paths/walkways and 14 sidewalk segments within 50 m; 5 street intersections within 100 m; 10 transit stops within a 400 m walk; 0 estimated access points across ~225 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
No amenities recorded — score is 0 until inventory is loaded.
Source: Toronto Parks & Recreation Facilities + OSM amenity tags
Natural Comfort
Natural-comfort components for this park: 0.0% estimated tree canopy; nearest waterbody ~1423 m. Reading: exposed. Source coverage: 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
30 buildings within 25 m of the park edge (6 mid-rise, 14 low-rise, 10 tower); avg edge height 32.2 m (~11 floors); 13.3 buildings per 100 m of 225 m perimeter — strong frontage density; edges lean tall but still framed; 10 towers ≥ 40 m within 25 m of the edge. "Eyes on the park" come strongest from the 6 mid-rise edge buildings.
Source: Toronto 3D Massing (building footprints + heights)
Border Vacuum Risk
Border-vacuum factors within 50 m of the park: Parking for H Mart, parking_lot, parking_lot, Yonge Street. 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 (0)
No amenities recorded for this park.
Nearby active-edge features (80)
- cafe — Tim Hortons8 m
- highway — Yonge Street19 m
- restaurant — Kim’s A La Cart22 m
- retail — Wine Rack28 m
- transit stop — Yonge Street at Church Avenue28 m
- retail — QQ Lashes31 m
- transit stop — Yonge St. @ Churchill Ave.33 m
- transit stop — Yonge Street at Churchill Avenue34 m
- retail — Floy Beauty34 m
- parking lot35 m
- parking lot — Parking for H Mart37 m
- retail — NINE38 m
- retail — Luna Bakery39 m
- restaurant — Miss Durian41 m
- restaurant — Go Topoki46 m
- parking lot46 m
- cafe — Royaltea48 m
- restaurant — Superhot51 m
- parking lot52 m
- parking lot53 m
- parking lot53 m
- retail — The OWL’s Meat Shop55 m
- retail — Rouzbeh Hair Salon59 m
- retail — N Hair Salon60 m
- parking lot60 m
- restaurant — Lucky Tea64 m
- restaurant — Roll.com64 m
- retail — Koko Hair Salon65 m
- retail — Azita Beauty Salon65 m
- retail — Danmi Nails & Brows65 m
- retail — La La Wellness Centre66 m
- restaurant — Hot Impression69 m
- restaurant — XiangLongZhuaZhua70 m
- restaurant — Haida Sandwich74 m
- parking lot74 m
- retail — Garden Hairdressing76 m
- retail — H2 Nails & Spa77 m
- parking lot81 m
- restaurant — Chinese Burger 肉来谟82 m
- retail — Urban Cleaners85 m
- restaurant — Oh Geul Boh Geul Korean Restaurant85 m
- retail — Haiwai Travel88 m
- transit stop — Yonge Street at Horsham Avenue91 m
- highway — Yonge Street93 m
- transit stop — Yonge Street at Northtown Way95 m
- restaurant — DakGoGi108 m
- restaurant — i-migo108 m
- retail — Northtown Convenience110 m
- retail — Celebrity Hair Stylist111 m
- retail — Bruce Hairstylist113 m
- parking lot114 m
- restaurant — San Tong115 m
- restaurant — Pho Dac Biet116 m
- retail — DigitM116 m
- restaurant — Zhang's Kitchen 张小厨119 m
- retail — Hair I Am Studio120 m
- retail — Pink Lipstick Beauty Supply122 m
- retail — Central Vape City125 m
- retail — UCRUISING126 m
- retail — 依 e's Beauty Studio127 m
- retail — Pumpkin Clothing and Accessories129 m
- retail — Queen's Nail129 m
- retail — KC Tour132 m
- retail — Happy Vacations133 m
- retail — Unicorn Pâtisserie & Lounge134 m
- retail — L'amour135 m
- retail — Sun Hair Salon135 m
- restaurant — CU Tteobokki138 m
- retail — sis² by Love139 m
- parking lot140 m
- restaurant — Beijing Restaurant141 m
- restaurant — Crystal Palace141 m
- parking lot142 m
- restaurant — 43° N BBQ Bar145 m
- restaurant — Cheng Du Taste146 m
- restaurant — Ai Taiker146 m
- retail — Breeze Salon151 m
- restaurant — Yang's Braised Chicken Rice151 m
- restaurant — 春 Chun Yang Taiwan Black Tea156 m
- restaurant — Hey Sugar | 嘿糖160 m
Park profile
Five-axis radar across the structural dimensions.
Citywide percentile ranks
Across all Toronto parks in the dataset.
- Overall vitality10th
- Edge activation27th
- Connectivity57th
- Amenity diversity36th
- Natural comfort0th
- Enclosure69th
Most similar parks
Closest in metric space across the five structural dimensions.
- City Wide Open SpaceParkette26
- City Wide Open SpaceParkette21
- City Wide Open SpaceUrban Plaza27
- Drumsnab ParketteParkette25
- City Wide Open SpaceCorridor / Linear Park27
Most opposite parks
Furthest in metric space — useful for recognising what kind of park this isn’t.
- Kew GardensNeighbourhood Park71
- Leslie Grove ParkParkette68
- Toronto ZooWaterfront Park57
- Mclevin Woods ParkRavine / Naturalized Park49
- Market Lane ParkUrban Plaza63
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 Willowdale Cemeterymatters. 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 — 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.