St. Mary Street Parkette
Urban Plaza, one of the city's strongest overall (score 51, rank ~96th percentile). Strongest: edge activation; weakest: natural comfort.
Aerial — City of Toronto orthophoto, ~8 cm/px source · cached 5/9/2026
St. Mary Street Parkette scores 51.2 / 100. Strongest dimensions: edge activation and enclosure / eyes on park. Weakest: amenity diversity (0). Border-vacuum risk is low. This score is a transparent reading of Jane Jacobs-style vitality factors — not a definitive judgment.
Area · 0.01 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 51 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 (56) significantly outpaces natural comfort (22) — well placed in the city but offers little shade or ecological respite.
- 19 nearby towers cast wind and shadow without contributing canopy — passive surveillance is plentiful but human-scale comfort is not.
- Strong physical conditions (score 51) but weak observed activity signals (9) — the model says this should work, but events, mentions, and counters say it isn't being used at the level the urban form would predict.
Performance in context
- This park is a strong overperformer for its cohort — raw 51 versus an expected 36 for similar parks (pocket Urban Plaza) (gap +15).
Typology classification
Classified as Urban Plaza: 56 m², paved (0% canopy), 54.0 buildings/100 m
Edge Activation
Within 100 m of the park edge: 35 active uses (retail, restaurant, school, cafe) and 1 dead/hostile uses (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 10 sidewalk segments within 50 m; 10 street intersections within 100 m; 44 transit stops within a 400 m walk; 0 estimated access points across ~31 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 ~1465 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
54 buildings within 25 m of the park edge (19 mid-rise, 16 low-rise, 19 tower); avg edge height 42.9 m (~14 floors); 54.0 buildings per 100 m of 31 m perimeter — strong frontage density; edges dominated by towers; 19 towers ≥ 40 m within 25 m of the edge. "Eyes on the park" come strongest from the 19 mid-rise edge buildings.
Source: Toronto 3D Massing (building footprints + heights)
Border Vacuum Risk
Park edges face the city — no significant border vacuum detected.
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)
- restaurant — Okonomi House32 m
- school — Blyth Academy - Yorkville Campus37 m
- restaurant — Blue Claw Lobster Shack41 m
- restaurant — Exotic Tandoori61 m
- restaurant — GBF Gourmet Burger Co.63 m
- retail — Rabba63 m
- restaurant — Sushi Club66 m
- restaurant — 7 West68 m
- retail70 m
- retail — Outsource Computronic71 m
- retail — Bruno Malfara Hair Studio72 m
- restaurant — Sushi Umi72 m
- retail72 m
- retail74 m
- parking lot75 m
- retail76 m
- retail — The Health Shoppe77 m
- retail — Suzanna Dry Cleaners82 m
- retail — Special Handcare Cleaners83 m
- restaurant — Monga Fried Chicken86 m
- retail — Cheese Bakery88 m
- retail89 m
- retail — Bez Bazaar91 m
- retail — 180 Smoke96 m
- retail — Blue Shark Coffee96 m
- retail — Popeye's Supplements96 m
- retail — Bulk Mine97 m
- restaurant — Kothur Indian Cuisine97 m
- restaurant — Xihe Peking Duck97 m
- cafe — Tim Hortons98 m
- retail — Longhairs98 m
- retail — Dollarama99 m
- retail — The Pet Store99 m
- retail — ASP Security Services99 m
- retail — Photo 1-2-3100 m
- restaurant — Popeyes100 m
- retail — Artist Alley Shop101 m
- restaurant — Pearl Yorkville Chinese Cuisine101 m
- restaurant — Avelo102 m
- transit stop — Charles Street102 m
- restaurant — Shinyi Dumplings102 m
- restaurant — Twilight Cafe103 m
- restaurant — The Diner's Corner104 m
- retail — Haartek Salon105 m
- retail — Anime Alley105 m
- restaurant — Da.si.mar Shawarma107 m
- retail107 m
- restaurant — O Bong107 m
- retail — Game Centre Video Games109 m
- restaurant — Hey I Am Yogost110 m
- transit stop — Charles Street112 m
- retail113 m
- parking lot113 m
- retail — New Wave Travel116 m
- highway — Yonge Street116 m
- parking lot117 m
- retail — Suzanna‘s Clearners117 m
- cafe — Hero Tea117 m
- restaurant — Sushi on bay117 m
- restaurant — Bingz118 m
- retail — Reflex Copy & Digital Printing119 m
- retail119 m
- cafe — Elizabeth Kay119 m
- restaurant — Toro Toro121 m
- retail — Citymarket122 m
- retail — Nail's Attraction124 m
- restaurant — McDonald's124 m
- highway — Yonge Street125 m
- restaurant — Sang-Ji Fried Bao126 m
- restaurant — The Artful Dodger126 m
- restaurant — Miss Fu in ChengDu127 m
- retail — Gadgets Plus128 m
- restaurant — A BBQ House128 m
- parking lot129 m
- retail — Rock Variety129 m
- retail130 m
- restaurant — The Foxes Den131 m
- retail — Uomo Barbershop131 m
- cafe — Zagmachi131 m
- restaurant — Saigon Lotus133 m
Park profile
Five-axis radar across the structural dimensions.
Citywide percentile ranks
Across all Toronto parks in the dataset.
- Overall vitality96th
- Edge activation100th
- Connectivity67th
- Amenity diversity47th
- Natural comfort0th
- Enclosure74th
Most similar parks
Closest in metric space across the five structural dimensions.
- Graham ParkUrban Plaza54
- Courthouse Square ParkCivic Square52
- City Wide Open SpaceRavine / Naturalized Park51
- Pape Avenue CemeteryUrban Plaza50
- Prescott ParketteUrban Plaza48
Most opposite parks
Furthest in metric space — useful for recognising what kind of park this isn’t.
- Trca Lands ( 26)Ravine / Naturalized Park27
- Toronto Islands - Muggs Island ParkRavine / Naturalized Park25
- Rouge ParkRavine / Naturalized Park28
- Rouge ParkRavine / Naturalized Park26
- Rouge ParkWaterfront Park25
Human activity signals
Programming, social attention, temporal rhythm, and nearby pedestrian / cycling flow. An experimental aggregate layer that complements the spatial scores — partial coverage, partial confidence.
Activity reading: pedestrian intensity 14.5/100; cycling/trail 24.2/100. The strongest signal is observed pedestrian/cycling activity. Source coverage: counters.
Does this score feel accurate?
Your read of St. Mary Street 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.
- 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.
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.