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City Wide Open Space — site photograph
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Othercluster ·Underperforming / Leftover Spaces (enclosure-leaning)Waterfront Communities-The Island (77)confidence moderatereal Toronto data

City Wide Open Space

Other, near the bottom of the city overall (score 22, rank ~6th percentile). Strongest: connectivity; weakest: natural comfort.

Aerial — City of Toronto orthophoto, ~8 cm/px source · cached 5/9/2026

City Wide Open Space scores 22.3 / 100. Strongest dimensions: connectivity and enclosure / eyes on park. 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.

Best for:varies — see metrics

Area · 0.42 ha

Vitality Score
22/100

Weighted across six dimensions · confidence 51%

Data Confidence
22.3 / 100
Citywide
6th
of all 3,273 parks
Among Other
33rd
same primary typology
Expected for similar parks
24
median in small Other (n=41)
Performance gap
-1
raw − expected · context confidence high
typical

Scores are not bell-curved. Percentiles and expected scores provide context without changing the underlying model.

Explain this score

Where did the 22 come from? Each weighted contribution against a neutral 50 baseline. Green = pushed up; red = pulled down.

Download JSON
What pushed this score up or down vs a neutral 50weight × score
Edge Activation0 · p13
-12.5
Amenity Diversity0 · p20
-10.0
Border Vacuum Risk100 (risk)
-5.0
Natural Comfort26 · p12
-3.6
Connectivity67 · p86
+3.4
Enclosure / Eyes on Park50 · p14
+0.0

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

City Wide Open Space works because its connectivity score (67) is in the top tier (11 transit stops sit within a 400 m walk; 9 intersections fall within 100 m of the edge).

What limits this park

City Wide Open Space is held back by natural comfort (26, bottom quartile)— only 0% canopy means little summer shade; border-vacuum risk is also elevated (100).

Most distinctive characteristic

Most distinctive feature: exceptionally low natural comfort (26, bottom quartile).

Jacobs reading

City Wide Open Space is currently underperforming on both axes — neither integrated into the city nor offering deep natural respite. A candidate for design intervention.

Tradeoffs

  • Connectivity (67) significantly outpaces natural comfort (26) — well placed in the city but offers little shade or ecological respite.
  • High connectivity coexists with high border-vacuum risk (100) — much of that connectivity is to highways, rail, or parking lots, not to neighbourhoods.

Performance in context

  • Although its citywide rank is low (6th), it ranks highly among similar others (33rd) — strong for what it is, even if the absolute score is moderate.

Typology classification

confidence 30%
Other

Classified as Other: does not meet any specific typology threshold (0.4 ha, 0 amenity types, frontage 0.0/100m)

Edge Activation

25% weightpartial 60%
0.0 / 100

Within 100 m of the park edge: 1 active uses (transit_stop) and 10 dead/hostile uses (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

20% weightmeasured 85%
66.9 / 100

Connectivity blends paths, intersections, transit, entrances, and edge density. This park has 14 mapped paths/walkways and 7 sidewalk segments within 50 m; 9 street intersections within 100 m; 11 transit stops within a 400 m walk; 5 estimated access points across ~340 m of perimeter. edge density is healthy — no superblock penalty. Source coverage: centreline, pedestrian_network, transit_osm.

Streets within 25 m4
Intersections within 100 m9
Paths/walkways (50 m)14
Sidewalk segments (50 m)7
Transit stops (400 m)11
Estimated entrances5
Edge connections / 100 m perimeter1.18
Park perimeter340 m

Source: Toronto Centreline V2 + Pedestrian Network + OSM transit stops

Amenity Diversity

20% weightinferred 30%
0.0 / 100

No amenities recorded — score is 0 until inventory is loaded.

Source: Toronto Parks & Recreation Facilities + OSM amenity tags

Natural Comfort

15% weightinferred 30%
26.2 / 100

Natural-comfort components for this park: 0.0% estimated tree canopy; nearest waterbody ~86 m. Reading: water-cooled. Source coverage: waterbodies. Impervious surface is approximated (Toronto's authoritative layer ships only as a raster GeoTIFF).

Canopy coverage0.0%
Canopy area0.00 ha
Inside ravine system0.0%
Water surface inside park0.0%
Nearest water (if outside park)86 m
Estimated green100.0%
City-mapped trees inside polygon0
Tree density0.0 / ha
Cover diversity (Shannon, 0–100)0.0
Sample points used30

Source: Toronto Treed Area + Ravine + Waterbodies + Street Tree Inventory

Enclosure / Eyes on Park

10% weightinferred 20%
50.0 / 100

No buildings within 50 m of this park edge — typical of ravines, watercourses, and hydro corridors. Enclosure is held at a neutral 50 with low confidence; for natural areas, this metric is essentially not applicable.

Buildings within 25 m0
Buildings within 50 m0
Avg edge height0.0 m (~0 floors)
Tallest edge building0.0 m
Mid-rise (3–7 floors)0
Low-rise (< 3 floors)0
Towers (≥ 13 floors)0
Frontage density0.00 per 100 m perimeter
Mid-rise share of edge0%
Tower share of edge0%
Blank-edge share (proxy)100%
Park perimeter340 m

Source: Toronto 3D Massing (no nearby buildings detected)

Border Vacuum Risk

10% weightpartial 60%
100.0 risk

Border-vacuum factors within 50 m of the park: Lake Shore Boulevard East, Lake Shore Boulevard East, Gardiner Expressway, Lake Shore Boulevard East, Lake Shore Boulevard East, Lake Shore Boulevard East, Lake Shore Boulevard East, Lake Shore Boulevard East. 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

contextinferred 15%
50.0 / 100

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 (34)

  • highway — Lake Shore Boulevard East3 m
  • highway — Lake Shore Boulevard East5 m
  • highway — Lake Shore Boulevard East9 m
  • highway — Gardiner Expressway13 m
  • highway — Lake Shore Boulevard East21 m
  • highway — Lake Shore Boulevard East23 m
  • highway — Lake Shore Boulevard East24 m
  • highway — Lake Shore Boulevard East41 m
  • highway — Gardiner Expressway66 m
  • highway — Lake Shore Boulevard East83 m
  • transit stop92 m
  • transit stop104 m
  • highway — Lake Shore Boulevard East112 m
  • parking lot117 m
  • rail130 m
  • parking lot134 m
  • rail138 m
  • rail — Union Station Rail Corridor147 m
  • rail — Union Station Rail Corridor149 m
  • rail — Union Station Rail Corridor153 m
  • transit stop — Villiers St at Cherry St155 m
  • rail — Union Station Rail Corridor156 m
  • rail — Union Station Rail Corridor160 m
  • rail — Union Station Rail Corridor160 m
  • rail — Union Station Rail Corridor164 m
  • rail165 m
  • rail168 m
  • rail — Union Station Rail Corridor169 m
  • rail — Union Station Rail Corridor171 m
  • transit stop — Villiers St at Cherry St180 m
  • highway — Gardiner Expressway181 m
  • rail — Union Station Rail Corridor191 m
  • rail — Union Station Rail Corridor193 m
  • rail — Union Station Rail Corridor198 m

Park profile

Five-axis radar across the structural dimensions.

Edge ActivationConnectivityAmenity DiversityNatural ComfortEnclosureCity Wide Open Space

Citywide percentile ranks

Across all Toronto parks in the dataset.

  • Overall vitality
    6th
  • Edge activation
    13th
  • Connectivity
    86th
  • Amenity diversity
    20th
  • Natural comfort
    12th
  • Enclosure
    14th

Most similar parks

Closest in metric space across the five structural dimensions.

Most opposite parks

Furthest in metric space — useful for recognising what kind of park this isn’t.

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 City Wide Open Spacematters. 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.

Rate this park on as many dimensions as you have an opinion about. 1 = not at all · 5 = strongly. Skip the ones you don't feel sure about. Aggregated only — no comments stored at the row level.

feels socially active
feels comfortable
feels safe
feels connected
feels welcoming
feels ecological / natural
feels good for lingering
feels family-friendly
feels culturally important

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 Facilities
    Inventory of in-park amenities (washrooms, fields, rinks…).
  • Toronto Pedestrian Network
    Sidewalk segments around and through parks; estimated park entrances.
  • Toronto Centreline V2
    Street segments + intersection nodes near park edges; trails and walkways.
  • Toronto 3D Massing
    Building footprints + heights for edge-building counts, frontage density, and tower-in-the-park risk.
  • Toronto Treed Area
    Tree canopy share inside park polygons via stratified-grid sampling.
  • Toronto Waterbodies & Rivers
    Water surface inside parks + nearest-water distance for cooling.
  • Ravine & Natural Feature Protection
    Ravine overlap as a cooling / natural-comfort signal.
  • Toronto Street Tree Inventory
    Tree count + density inside park polygons.
  • Neighbourhood Profiles
    (Pending) Equity context proxy.
  • OpenStreetMap (Overpass API)
    Cafés, restaurants, retail, transit stops, parking, highways, rail.