Mccaul - Orde Parkette
Urban Plaza, middle of the pack overall (score 34, rank ~50th percentile). Strongest: enclosure; weakest: natural comfort.
Aerial — City of Toronto orthophoto, ~8 cm/px source · cached 5/9/2026
Mccaul - Orde Parkette scores 34.1 / 100. Strongest dimensions: enclosure / eyes on park and connectivity. Weakest: amenity diversity (0). Border-vacuum risk is elevated (36). This score is a transparent reading of Jane Jacobs-style vitality factors — not a definitive judgment.
Area · 0.28 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 34 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 (68) significantly outpaces natural comfort (31) — well placed in the city but offers little shade or ecological respite.
- The park is enclosed by buildings (95) but the surrounding streets are quiet (edge activation 0) — frame without animation.
Typology classification
Classified as Urban Plaza: 2764 m², paved (0% canopy), 28.0 buildings/100 m
Edge Activation
Within 100 m of the park edge: 0 active uses (none) and 8 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 4 mapped paths/walkways and 8 sidewalk segments within 50 m; 13 street intersections within 100 m; 29 transit stops within a 400 m walk; 4 estimated access points across ~229 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; 1 city-mapped trees inside the polygon (1.0/ha). Reading: exposed. Source coverage: 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
64 buildings within 25 m of the park edge (34 mid-rise, 26 low-rise, 4 tower); avg edge height 16.1 m (~5 floors); 28.0 buildings per 100 m of 229 m perimeter — strong frontage density; edges are at a Jacobs-scale walkable mid-rise (3–7 floors); 4 towers ≥ 40 m within 25 m of the edge. "Eyes on the park" come strongest from the 34 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, parking_lot, 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 (80)
- parking lot17 m
- parking lot26 m
- parking lot50 m
- parking lot69 m
- parking lot72 m
- parking lot73 m
- parking lot75 m
- parking lot96 m
- parking lot102 m
- restaurant — Druxy's Famous Deli104 m
- parking lot116 m
- restaurant — Margarita's Mexican Fiesta118 m
- retail — Baldwin Naturals Health Food Store121 m
- parking lot125 m
- parking lot128 m
- restaurant — Street Grill Bar129 m
- parking lot130 m
- restaurant — St. Louis Bar & Grill133 m
- restaurant — Omai134 m
- restaurant — Dakshin135 m
- cafe — Butter & Blue137 m
- cafe — On the Way Café138 m
- retail — Cubeshops139 m
- restaurant — Smith Social House139 m
- restaurant — Cafe la Gaffe140 m
- restaurant — Manchu Wok140 m
- restaurant — Subway141 m
- restaurant — Meet You142 m
- retail — Hattendo143 m
- restaurant — The Poke Box143 m
- cafe — Rooms143 m
- restaurant — Mexhico145 m
- cafe — Second Cup145 m
- transit stop — McCaul Street147 m
- restaurant — Valens147 m
- transit stop — McCaul Street147 m
- restaurant — Lala Spicy Lab148 m
- cafe — Tim Hortons150 m
- restaurant — Dong Dong BBQ Meat Bibimibap150 m
- retail152 m
- restaurant — Light café153 m
- restaurant — Dear Saigon155 m
- retail — Indigo155 m
- retail — Streetcvlture157 m
- retail — INS Market158 m
- restaurant — Fat Bastard Burrito160 m
- retail — Mode Line160 m
- retail — Medical Canada160 m
- restaurant — Charidise161 m
- retail — Ginkgo Floral Design162 m
- restaurant — Smoque N' Bones162 m
- restaurant — Taisho Japanese Grill162 m
- retail — Mansueta Medical Garment Fitters163 m
- retail — La Fete163 m
- restaurant — Midi164 m
- restaurant — Soya Peking Duck165 m
- cafe — Tim Hortons173 m
- restaurant — Koh Lipe174 m
- restaurant — Bread & Bowl175 m
- cafe — Jimmy's Coffee175 m
- cafe — Second Cup176 m
- cafe — Carbonic Coffee176 m
- retail — Alfies177 m
- restaurant — Swiss Chalet178 m
- retail178 m
- restaurant — Ronin Izakaya181 m
- retail — Garry's Shoe Repair182 m
- restaurant — Krispy Kreme183 m
- retail — Last Gen Toronto185 m
- cafe — The Sweet Spot185 m
- retail185 m
- parking lot185 m
- restaurant — Yunnan Noodle Shack188 m
- restaurant — Neon Hotpot189 m
- restaurant — Subway190 m
- transit stop — University Ave at Gerrard St West191 m
- cafe — Timothy's192 m
- restaurant — Larb Muang192 m
- restaurant — Tiger Den193 m
- restaurant — Dahu Hotpot193 m
Park profile
Five-axis radar across the structural dimensions.
Citywide percentile ranks
Across all Toronto parks in the dataset.
- Overall vitality50th
- Edge activation40th
- Connectivity87th
- Amenity diversity46th
- Natural comfort14th
- Enclosure99th
Most similar parks
Closest in metric space across the five structural dimensions.
- Gwendolyn Macewen ParketteUrban Plaza38
- FOREST HILL PUBLIC LIBRARY - Building GroundsRavine / Naturalized Park27
- Yorkminster Park Baptist Church ParkCorridor / Linear Park26
- Avonshire ParketteUrban Plaza37
- Downsview ParkWaterfront Park30
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 ParkWaterfront Park25
- Rouge ParkRavine / Naturalized Park26
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 Mccaul - Orde 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.
- 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.