Scarborough Hydro Green Space
Ravine / Naturalized Park, above average overall (score 41, rank ~78th percentile). Strongest: edge activation; weakest: amenity diversity.
Aerial — City of Toronto orthophoto, ~8 cm/px source · cached 5/9/2026
Scarborough Hydro Green Space scores 40.7 / 100. Strongest dimensions: enclosure / eyes on park and natural comfort. 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 · 2.15 ha
Weighted across six dimensions · confidence 63%
Scores are not bell-curved. Percentiles and expected scores provide context without changing the underlying model.
Explain this score
Where did the 41 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
Performance in context
- A modest overperformer for its ravine / naturalized park typology (+5 vs the median in medium Ravine / Naturalized Park ravine).
Typology classification
Classified as Ravine / Naturalized Park: 100% ravine overlap, 3% canopy. Secondary read: Neighbourhood Park (2.1 ha, framed by 0 mid-rise vs 0 towers).
Edge Activation
Within 100 m of the park edge: 9 active uses (restaurant, transit_stop, retail) and 3 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 14 sidewalk segments within 50 m; 12 street intersections within 100 m; 8 transit stops within a 400 m walk; 0 estimated access points across ~867 m of perimeter. low edge density — significant superblock penalty applied. 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: 3.0% estimated tree canopy; 100.0% inside the ravine system; nearest waterbody ~41 m. Reading: ravine-cooled. Source coverage: treed_area, ravine, 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
107 buildings within 25 m of the park edge (0 mid-rise, 107 low-rise, 0 tower); avg edge height 4.1 m (~1 floors); 12.3 buildings per 100 m of 867 m perimeter — strong frontage density; edges are barely there or single-storey; no towers immediately adjacent. "Eyes on the park" come strongest from the 0 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. 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 (37)
- parking lot28 m
- transit stop — Kennedy Rd at Forbes Rd52 m
- transit stop — Forbes Road57 m
- transit stop — Shropshire Drive58 m
- parking lot60 m
- retail — The Chesterfield Shop63 m
- retail — Ryder72 m
- parking lot79 m
- retail81 m
- retail — TechCity Canada88 m
- restaurant — Kairali89 m
- retail96 m
- retail — Local Cannabis102 m
- parking lot103 m
- retail108 m
- parking lot113 m
- parking lot116 m
- parking lot116 m
- transit stop — Kennedy Rd at Shropshire Dr119 m
- restaurant — Karaikudi Chettinad South Indian Restaurant120 m
- retail126 m
- parking lot126 m
- parking lot129 m
- parking lot138 m
- retail143 m
- parking lot144 m
- retail — The Salvation Army151 m
- retail — Stepheson's Rental Centre165 m
- retail174 m
- parking lot177 m
- parking lot181 m
- retail181 m
- parking lot187 m
- retail — Cash 4 You188 m
- retail — Imperial Home Furnishing190 m
- retail193 m
- restaurant — Jerry's Fish & Chips199 m
Park profile
Five-axis radar across the structural dimensions.
Citywide percentile ranks
Across all Toronto parks in the dataset.
- Overall vitality78th
- Edge activation90th
- Connectivity51th
- Amenity diversity23th
- Natural comfort59th
- Enclosure28th
Most similar parks
Closest in metric space across the five structural dimensions.
- Public Access PropertyCorridor / Linear Park41
- Massey Creek RavineWaterfront Park40
- HILLCREST LIBRARY - Building GroundsParkette41
- 311 Staines RdNeighbourhood Park43
- FRANKLIN HORNER COMMUNITY CENTRE - Building GroundsNeighbourhood Park36
Most opposite parks
Furthest in metric space — useful for recognising what kind of park this isn’t.
- High ParkRavine / Naturalized Park47
- Ramsden ParkRavine / Naturalized Park43
- Trca Lands ( 26)Ravine / Naturalized Park27
- Earlscourt ParkNeighbourhood Park44
- Withrow ParkNeighbourhood Park50
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 Scarborough Hydro Green 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.
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.
- Add or open more entrances and improve sidewalk continuity around the park. More permeability means more spontaneous use.
- 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.