Betty Sutherland Trail Park
Ravine / Naturalized Park, near the bottom of the city overall (score 25, rank ~12th percentile). Strongest: natural comfort; weakest: enclosure.
Aerial — City of Toronto orthophoto, ~8 cm/px source · cached 5/9/2026
Betty Sutherland Trail Park scores 24.8 / 100. Strongest dimensions: natural comfort and connectivity. Weakest: amenity diversity (0). Border-vacuum risk is elevated (100). This score is a transparent reading of Jane Jacobs-style vitality factors — not a definitive judgment.
Area · 30.15 ha
Weighted across six dimensions · confidence 63%
Scores are not bell-curved. Percentiles and expected scores provide context without changing the underlying model.
Explain this score
Where did the 25 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
Performance in context
- Reads as a modest underperformer relative to comparable parks (gap -9; cohort: very large Ravine / Naturalized Park ravine).
Typology classification
Classified as Ravine / Naturalized Park: 92% ravine overlap, 24% canopy. Secondary read: Waterfront Park (nearest waterbody within ~0 m).
Edge Activation
Within 100 m of the park edge: 7 active uses (transit_stop) and 30 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 4 mapped paths/walkways and 23 sidewalk segments within 50 m; 12 street intersections within 100 m; 24 transit stops within a 400 m walk; 5 estimated access points across ~3,558 m of perimeter. low edge density — significant superblock penalty applied. 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: 23.7% estimated tree canopy; 91.6% inside the ravine system; 3.3% water surface; 16 city-mapped trees inside the polygon (0.5/ha). Reading: ravine-cooled. Source coverage: treed_area, ravine, 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
19 buildings within 25 m of the park edge (7 mid-rise, 7 low-rise, 5 tower); avg edge height 24.3 m (~8 floors); 0.5 buildings per 100 m of 3,558 m perimeter — thin frontage — significant blank-edge share; edges lean tall but still framed; 5 towers ≥ 40 m within 25 m of the edge. "Eyes on the park" come strongest from the 7 mid-rise edge buildings.
Source: Toronto 3D Massing (building footprints + heights)
Border Vacuum Risk
Border-vacuum factors within 50 m of the park: Highway 401 Collector, Highway 401 Collector, parking_lot, parking_lot, parking_lot, parking_lot, parking_lot, Highway 401 Collector, parking_lot, parking_lot, parking_lot, parking_lot, parking_lot, Highway 401 Collector, Highway 401 Collector, 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 (0)
No amenities recorded for this park.
Nearby active-edge features (71)
- parking lot0 m
- parking lot16 m
- parking lot17 m
- parking lot22 m
- parking lot25 m
- highway — Highway 401 Collector27 m
- parking lot35 m
- parking lot35 m
- highway — Highway 401 Collector39 m
- highway — Highway 401 Collector39 m
- parking lot41 m
- parking lot41 m
- parking lot42 m
- parking lot45 m
- highway — Highway 401 Collector46 m
- highway — Highway 401 Collector48 m
- highway — Highway 401 Collector51 m
- transit stop — Graydon Hall Place53 m
- parking lot54 m
- transit stop — Duncan Mill Rd at Don Mills Road west side stop55 m
- parking lot61 m
- highway — Highway 401 Express62 m
- parking lot69 m
- parking lot77 m
- highway — Highway 401 Express77 m
- highway — Highway 401 Collector79 m
- transit stop — Duncan Mill Rd at Valleybrook Dr80 m
- transit stop — Duncan Mill Rd at Don Mills Road west side stop81 m
- transit stop — Duncan Mill Rd at Valleybrook Dr82 m
- parking lot85 m
- transit stop — 2040 Don Mills Road86 m
- parking lot86 m
- highway — Highway 401 Express92 m
- parking lot94 m
- highway — Highway 401 Express96 m
- transit stop — Duncan Mill Road96 m
- highway — Highway 401 Collector100 m
- parking lot103 m
- highway — Highway 401 Collector105 m
- retail — ICS Computer109 m
- highway — Highway 401 Express110 m
- highway — Highway 401 Express112 m
- transit stop113 m
- transit stop — Duncan Mill Rd at Don Mills Road east side stop115 m
- retail — Print Three116 m
- transit stop — Graydon Hall Drive117 m
- highway — Highway 401 Collector119 m
- transit stop122 m
- parking lot127 m
- highway — Highway 401 Collector129 m
- transit stop133 m
- transit stop135 m
- parking lot141 m
- parking lot151 m
- parking lot154 m
- parking lot161 m
- highway — Highway 401 Collector167 m
- parking lot172 m
- parking lot174 m
- parking lot178 m
- parking lot181 m
- parking lot181 m
- parking lot182 m
- parking lot184 m
- parking lot186 m
- restaurant — Lucas Cafe188 m
- parking lot188 m
- highway — Highway 401 Collector189 m
- parking lot194 m
- parking lot195 m
- parking lot199 m
Park profile
Five-axis radar across the structural dimensions.
Citywide percentile ranks
Across all Toronto parks in the dataset.
- Overall vitality12th
- Edge activation42th
- Connectivity67th
- Amenity diversity48th
- Natural comfort81th
- Enclosure6th
Most similar parks
Closest in metric space across the five structural dimensions.
- Linkwood Lane ParketteTower-Community Green Space29
- Misty Hills ParkRavine / Naturalized Park35
- Toronto ZooRavine / Naturalized Park29
- City Wide Open SpaceOther33
- Toronto ZooRavine / Naturalized Park32
Most opposite parks
Furthest in metric space — useful for recognising what kind of park this isn’t.
- Leslie Grove ParkParkette68
- ALEX WILSON COMMUNITY GARDEN - Open Green SpaceUrban Plaza59
- Joseph Burr Tyrrell ParkUrban Plaza50
- Bernard Avenue Road AllowanceUrban Plaza54
- Sonya'S ParkUrban Plaza60
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 Betty Sutherland Trail 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.
- Encourage mid-rise, windowed frontages around the park so residents have direct sightlines onto it.
- 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.