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Toronto Parks Atlas
Yonge Boulevard Parkette, site photograph
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Urban PlazaType:Walkable Mid-Rise Neighbourhood Park (enclosure-leaning)Lawrence Park North

Yonge Boulevard Parkette

Urban Plaza, above average overall (score 42, rank ~78th percentile). Strongest: enclosure; weakest: natural comfort.

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

Yonge Boulevard Parkette scores 41.7 / 100. Strongest dimensions: enclosure / eyes on park and connectivity. Weakest: amenity diversity (0). Border-vacuum risk is elevated (60). This score is a transparent reading of Jane Jacobs-style vitality factors, not a definitive judgment.

Best fordaily passing-throughpocket meetings

Area · 0.10 ha

Getting around

Paths

65 m of mapped path. Too little surface tagging to say how much is paved.

Too little path mapped to check for steps.

Seating

No seating mapped in OpenStreetMap.

Arrival

Nearest parking 81 m away. None of the 4 nearby lots records whether it has accessible spaces.

Path, seating and parking data comes from OpenStreetMap and reflects what volunteers have mapped, not a survey. Absence here means nobody has recorded it. This section does not assess wheelchair access: the relevant OpenStreetMap tag is present on well under 1% of Toronto paths.

Vitality Score
42/100

Weighted across six dimensions · confidence 57%

Data Confidence
41.7 / 100

Data confidence: moderate

Citywide
78th
of all 3,788 parks
Among Urban Plaza
63rd
same primary typology
Expected for similar parks
38
median in pocket Urban Plaza (n=360)
Performance gap
+4
raw − expected · context confidence high
typical

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

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Street context. Park polygon highlighted on the citywide map.

Explain this score

Where did the 42 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
Amenity Diversity0 · p48
-10.0
Enclosure / Eyes on Park86 · p92
+3.6
Connectivity67 · p88
+3.5
Edge Activation38 · p91
-3.0
Natural Comfort41 · p38
-1.4
Border Vacuum Risk60 (risk)
-1.0

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

Yonge Boulevard Parkette works because its enclosure score (86) is in the top tier and its edge activation (38) is also top decile (12 mid-rise buildings frame the edge with passive surveillance).

What limits this park

Yonge Boulevard Parkette's edges are fronted by border-vacuum land uses (highways, rail, parking, blank institutional), risk score 60.

Most distinctive characteristic

Most distinctive feature: exceptionally high enclosure (86, top decile).

Jacobs reading

Yonge Boulevard Parkette sits between an urban social park and an ecological retreat: moderately useful for both, exceptionally suited to neither.

Tradeoffs

  • Connectivity (67) significantly outpaces natural comfort (41): well placed in the city but offers little shade or ecological respite.
  • High connectivity coexists with high border-vacuum risk (60): much of that connectivity is to highways, rail, or parking lots, not to neighbourhoods.

Typology classification

confidence 70%
Urban Plaza

Classified as Urban Plaza: 1033 m², paved (0% canopy), 37.8 buildings/100 m

Edge Activation

25% weightpartial 60%
38.0 / 100

Within 100 m of the park edge: 14 active uses (retail, restaurant, transit_stop, cafe) and 4 dead/hostile uses (parking_lot, 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%
67.3 / 100

Connectivity blends paths, intersections, transit, entrances, and edge density. This park has 6 mapped paths/walkways and 21 sidewalk segments within 50 m; 5 street intersections within 100 m; 10 transit stops within a 400 m walk; 4 estimated access points across ~161 m of perimeter. edge density is healthy, no superblock penalty. Source coverage: centreline, pedestrian_network, transit_osm.

Streets within 25 m8
Intersections within 100 m5
Paths/walkways (50 m)6
Sidewalk segments (50 m)21
Transit stops (400 m)10
Estimated entrances4
Edge connections / 100 m perimeter4.96
Park perimeter161 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 36%
40.8 / 100

Natural-comfort components for this park: ~6.3% effective canopy (0.0% from contiguous tree polygons + scattered tree density); nearest waterbody ~664 m; 9 city-mapped trees inside the polygon (9.0/ha). Reading: exposed. Source coverage: waterbodies, street_trees. 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)664 m
Estimated green100.0%
City-mapped trees inside polygon9
Tree density9.0 / ha
Cover diversity (Shannon, 0 to 100)0.0
Sample points used17

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

Enclosure / Eyes on Park

10% weightmeasured 80%
86.0 / 100

61 buildings within 25 m of the park edge (12 mid-rise, 49 low-rise, 0 tower); avg edge height 7.5 m (~3 floors); 37.8 buildings per 100 m of 161 m perimeter (strong frontage density); edges are low-rise (mostly 2 to 3 floors); no towers immediately adjacent. "Eyes on the park" come strongest from the 12 mid-rise edge buildings.

Buildings within 25 m61
Buildings within 50 m61
Avg edge height7.5 m (~3 floors)
Tallest edge building15.1 m
Mid-rise (3 to 7 floors)12
Low-rise (< 3 floors)49
Towers (≥ 13 floors)0
Frontage density37.84 per 100 m perimeter
Mid-rise share of edge20%
Tower share of edge0%
Blank-edge share (proxy)0%
Park perimeter161 m

Source: Toronto 3D Massing (building footprints + heights)

Border Vacuum Risk

10% weightpartial 60%
60.0 risk

Border-vacuum factors within 50 m of the park: Yonge Street, Yonge Street. Jacobs warned that highways, rail, parking lots and blank institutional edges act as "vacuums" that 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 (30)

  • transit stop: Yonge St at Yonge Blvd0 m
  • highway: Yonge Street11 m
  • transit stop: Yonge Blvd at Yonge St15 m
  • transit stop: Yonge St at Yonge Blvd18 m
  • highway: Yonge Street23 m
  • retail: Sloan's Shoes31 m
  • cafe: grounded. Coffeebar32 m
  • retail: Natural La Spa35 m
  • restaurant: The Belly Buster Submarines38 m
  • retail: Hairy Tarantula46 m
  • retail: Trinity Medispa48 m
  • restaurant: PhaYao Thai55 m
  • retail: Beautique Bar58 m
  • retail: Blade & Razor Company65 m
  • parking lot81 m
  • highway: Yonge Street83 m
  • restaurant: Yonge Sushi89 m
  • retail: Sixth Sense Spa & Nail Lounge96 m
  • transit stop: Yonge St at Melrose Ave109 m
  • transit stop: Teddington Avenue127 m
  • cafe: Starbucks128 m
  • retail: Pet Valu129 m
  • parking lot129 m
  • parking lot142 m
  • parking lot149 m
  • retail: LCBO158 m
  • restaurant: Rudy162 m
  • highway: Yonge Street174 m
  • highway: Yonge Street177 m
  • restaurant: The Burger Cellar187 m

Park profile

Five-axis radar across the structural dimensions.

Edge ActivationConnectivityAmenity DiversityNatural ComfortEnclosureYonge Boulevard Parkette
Edge activation, connectivity, amenity diversity, natural comfort, and enclosure, each 0 to 100.

Citywide percentile ranks

Across all Toronto parks in the dataset.

  • Overall vitality
    78th
  • Edge activation
    91th
  • Connectivity
    88th
  • Amenity diversity
    48th
  • Natural comfort
    38th
  • Enclosure
    92th

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 Yonge Boulevard Parkette matters. 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
70%

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

real Toronto data
  • City of Toronto Open Data: Parks (Green Space)
    Polygon boundaries, official names, types. Boundaries are reconciled against OpenStreetMap (ODbL) for new and updated parks.
  • 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.