Detected urban patterns
Auto-detected groupings that don’t fall out of typology or cluster, but matter to the experience of using a park. Each pattern is defined by a small rule set on the metrics and tells you something the typology alone won’t.
Excellent enclosure, poor comfort
Tightly framed by mid-rise but exposed to heat — strong urban form, weak ecological function. Common in dense pre-war neighbourhoods where the original tree canopy was lost.
| Park | Typology | Edge | Conn | Comfort | Encl | Overall |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Belmont Parkette | Urban Plaza | 9 | 56 | 34 | 98 | 39 |
| Bernard Avenue Road Allowance | Urban Plaza | 81 | 47 | 32 | 98 | 54 |
| Roxborough - Yonge St Traffic Island | Urban Plaza | 48 | 66 | 24 | 98 | 43 |
| Montclair Avenue Parkette | Urban Plaza | 70 | 50 | 24 | 98 | 50 |
| Parkview Gardens Parkette | Urban Plaza | 0 | 44 | 26 | 98 | 25 |
| Glasgow Street Parkette | Urban Plaza | 58 | 54 | 31 | 97 | 50 |
| Boswell Parkette | Urban Plaza | 52 | 58 | 22 | 97 | 48 |
| Jesse Ketchum Park | Urban Plaza | 9 | 59 | 23 | 97 | 37 |
| Lillian H. Smith Park | Urban Plaza | 63 | 40 | 32 | 97 | 47 |
| Spadina Road Green | Urban Plaza | 0 | 45 | 33 | 97 | 34 |
| Spadina Road Green | Urban Plaza | 17 | 25 | 24 | 97 | 33 |
| Joseph Burr Tyrrell Park | Urban Plaza | 74 | 23 | 31 | 97 | 50 |
Highly connected but socially weak
Many streets and transit stops nearby, but the surrounding land use is hostile or quiet. Connectivity does not, on its own, make a park work as a public place.
| Park | Typology | Edge | Conn | Comfort | Encl | Overall |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wychwood Barns Park | Neighbourhood Park | 0 | 75 | 51 | 82 | 48 |
| High Park | Ravine / Naturalized Park | 0 | 89 | 76 | 87 | 47 |
| Joseph Bannon Park | Parkette | 0 | 76 | 63 | 95 | 46 |
| Balmy Beach Park | Waterfront Park | 0 | 81 | 49 | 72 | 46 |
| Jean Sibelius Square | Civic Square | 0 | 74 | 39 | 96 | 46 |
| Riverdale Park West | Ravine / Naturalized Park | 0 | 84 | 59 | 76 | 46 |
| Mccormick Park | Athletic / Recreation Park | 0 | 81 | 49 | 77 | 46 |
| Monarch Park | Neighbourhood Park | 0 | 79 | 64 | 80 | 45 |
| Sorauren Avenue Park | Athletic / Recreation Park | 0 | 79 | 50 | 92 | 45 |
| Orchard Park | Neighbourhood Park | 0 | 73 | 47 | 79 | 45 |
| Cedarvale Park | Ravine / Naturalized Park | 0 | 76 | 54 | 74 | 45 |
| Rexdale Park | Waterfront Park | 0 | 76 | 65 | 60 | 45 |
Trapped by border vacuums
High Border-Vacuum Risk regardless of the park's other strengths — adjacent highways, rail, or institutional walls dominate the experience.
| Park | Typology | Edge | Conn | Comfort | Encl | Overall |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| High Park | Ravine / Naturalized Park | 0 | 89 | 76 | 87 | 47 |
| Snider Parkette | Urban Plaza | 40 | 59 | 51 | 93 | 44 |
| Earlscourt Park | Neighbourhood Park | 0 | 82 | 59 | 75 | 44 |
| Christie Pits Park | Ravine / Naturalized Park | 0 | 87 | 59 | 80 | 44 |
| Ramsden Park | Ravine / Naturalized Park | 0 | 85 | 49 | 94 | 43 |
| East Lynn Park | Neighbourhood Park | 32 | 69 | 55 | 72 | 43 |
| Oriole Park - Toronto | Neighbourhood Park | 0 | 79 | 63 | 86 | 42 |
| Lawrence Park Ravine | Ravine / Naturalized Park | 0 | 80 | 68 | 85 | 41 |
| Centennial Park - Etobicoke | Waterfront Park | 0 | 78 | 68 | 56 | 41 |
| Earl Bales Park | Ravine / Naturalized Park | 0 | 78 | 67 | 69 | 41 |
| Eglinton Park | Neighbourhood Park | 0 | 81 | 40 | 83 | 40 |
| Morningside Park | Ravine / Naturalized Park | 0 | 75 | 83 | 57 | 40 |
Overlooked high-performing parkettes
Tiny parks (under 0.5 ha) that punch well above their weight on enclosure and edge activation. Easy to dismiss on a map; central to neighbourhood life on the ground.
| Park | Typology | Edge | Conn | Comfort | Encl | Overall |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bellevue Square Park | Civic Square | 85 | 75 | 42 | 81 | 66 |
| Market Lane Park | Urban Plaza | 90 | 66 | 53 | 90 | 63 |
| Maple Leaf Forever Park | Urban Plaza | 81 | 72 | 37 | 83 | 61 |
| Sonya'S Park | Urban Plaza | 84 | 65 | 32 | 89 | 60 |
| Ryerson Community Park | Urban Plaza | 88 | 58 | 49 | 88 | 60 |
| Graham Park | Urban Plaza | 80 | 65 | 38 | 81 | 59 |
| Grace - College Parkette | Corridor / Linear Park | 80 | 68 | 38 | 91 | 59 |
| ALEX WILSON COMMUNITY GARDEN - Open Green Space | Urban Plaza | 81 | 78 | 23 | 93 | 59 |
| Arena Gardens | Urban Plaza | 74 | 70 | 37 | 74 | 58 |
| James Canning Gardens | Urban Plaza | 68 | 76 | 35 | 80 | 58 |
| Malta Park | Urban Plaza | 61 | 66 | 52 | 84 | 58 |
| Ivan Forrest Gardens | Ravine / Naturalized Park | 52 | 76 | 59 | 79 | 58 |
Tower-shadow parks
High enclosure score driven by tower walls rather than mid-rise frontage — passive surveillance is plentiful, but human-scale comfort suffers (wind, shadow, sterile ground floors).
| Park | Typology | Edge | Conn | Comfort | Encl | Overall |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Belmont Parkette | Urban Plaza | 9 | 56 | 34 | 98 | 39 |
| Roxborough - Yonge St Traffic Island | Urban Plaza | 48 | 66 | 24 | 98 | 43 |
| Montclair Avenue Parkette | Urban Plaza | 70 | 50 | 24 | 98 | 50 |
| Glasgow Street Parkette | Urban Plaza | 58 | 54 | 31 | 97 | 50 |
| Boswell Parkette | Urban Plaza | 52 | 58 | 22 | 97 | 48 |
| Jesse Ketchum Park | Urban Plaza | 9 | 59 | 23 | 97 | 37 |
| Gwendolyn Macewen Parkette | Urban Plaza | 0 | 68 | 32 | 96 | 38 |
| Huron Street Playground | Urban Plaza | 0 | 61 | 33 | 96 | 34 |
| FOREST HILL PUBLIC LIBRARY - Building Grounds | Ravine / Naturalized Park | 0 | 62 | 34 | 96 | 27 |
| HARRISON POOL - Building Grounds | Urban Plaza | 56 | 65 | 22 | 95 | 51 |
| Avonshire Parkette | Urban Plaza | 0 | 59 | 35 | 95 | 37 |
| Robert St Playground | Urban Plaza | 32 | 54 | 33 | 95 | 43 |
Ravine-edge disconnect
Ravine and naturalised parks scoring high on natural comfort while their edges are functionally sealed off from the city — the ecological asset isn't reaching the people who live nearby.
| Park | Typology | Edge | Conn | Comfort | Encl | Overall |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| City Wide Open Space | Ravine / Naturalized Park | 0 | 23 | 92 | 57 | 34 |
| Home Smith Park | Ravine / Naturalized Park | 0 | 39 | 91 | 62 | 37 |
| Trca Lands ( 60) | Ravine / Naturalized Park | 0 | 27 | 91 | 59 | 35 |
| City Wide Open Space | Ravine / Naturalized Park | 14 | 40 | 91 | 89 | 44 |
| City Wide Open Space | Ravine / Naturalized Park | 14 | 40 | 91 | 89 | 44 |
| Highland Creek Tributary | Ravine / Naturalized Park | 0 | 26 | 91 | 68 | 36 |
| Lower Don Parklands | Ravine / Naturalized Park | 0 | 9 | 91 | 50 | 30 |
| Rouge Park | Ravine / Naturalized Park | 0 | 9 | 91 | 50 | 27 |
| City Wide Open Space | Ravine / Naturalized Park | 0 | 38 | 91 | 88 | 40 |
| Moccasin Trail Park | Ravine / Naturalized Park | 0 | 34 | 91 | 74 | 38 |
| Trca Lands ( 70) | Ravine / Naturalized Park | 0 | 29 | 91 | 66 | 35 |
| City Wide Open Space | Ravine / Naturalized Park | 0 | 32 | 91 | 78 | 34 |
Why these patterns?
Each pattern picks at a tension the headline score papers over. A park can be high-scoring and still be a tower-shadow plaza, a heat sink, or a ravine that nobody can reach.
The patterns are deliberately small and rule-based. If you disagree with a threshold, the relevant code lives in src/lib/insights.ts in the urbanPatterns()function. Change the numbers, rebuild the cache, and the page updates.