Toronto Hydro Green Space
Corridor / Linear Park, below average overall (score 29, rank ~26th percentile). Strongest: connectivity; weakest: natural comfort.
Aerial — City of Toronto orthophoto, ~8 cm/px source · cached 5/9/2026
Toronto Hydro Green Space scores 29.1 / 100. Strongest dimensions: enclosure / eyes on park and connectivity. 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.
Area · 1.62 ha
Weighted across six dimensions · confidence 54%
Scores are not bell-curved. Percentiles and expected scores provide context without changing the underlying model.
Explain this score
Where did the 29 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
- The park is enclosed by buildings (70) but the surrounding streets are quiet (edge activation 6) — frame without animation.
- 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
- Reads as a modest underperformer relative to comparable parks (gap -8; cohort: medium Corridor / Linear Park).
Typology classification
Classified as Corridor / Linear Park: shape elongation 2.7× a circle of equal area. Secondary read: Neighbourhood Park (1.6 ha, framed by 9 mid-rise vs 0 towers).
Edge Activation
Within 100 m of the park edge: 14 active uses (restaurant, transit_stop, retail) and 8 dead/hostile uses (rail, 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 1 mapped paths/walkways and 18 sidewalk segments within 50 m; 27 street intersections within 100 m; 26 transit stops within a 400 m walk; 1 estimated access points across ~1,237 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 requires inputs not yet loaded for this park (Treed Area / Ravine / Waterbodies / Street Trees). Score is held at a neutral 50 with low confidence — read with caution.
Source: Treed Area / Ravine / Waterbodies / Street Trees
Enclosure / Eyes on Park
121 buildings within 25 m of the park edge (9 mid-rise, 112 low-rise, 0 tower); avg edge height 6.7 m (~2 floors); 9.8 buildings per 100 m of 1,237 m perimeter — strong frontage density; edges are low-rise (mostly 2–3 floors); no towers immediately adjacent. "Eyes on the park" come strongest from the 9 mid-rise edge buildings.
Source: Toronto 3D Massing (building footprints + heights)
Border Vacuum Risk
Border-vacuum factors within 50 m of the park: Newmarket Subdivision, Newmarket Subdivision, Newmarket Subdivision, parking_lot, parking_lot, parking_lot, Newmarket Subdivision, 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 (54)
- parking lot9 m
- rail — Newmarket Subdivision15 m
- rail — Newmarket Subdivision16 m
- rail — Newmarket Subdivision22 m
- parking lot32 m
- restaurant — Távora38 m
- parking lot46 m
- rail — Newmarket Subdivision46 m
- retail — Vespertine46 m
- parking lot49 m
- transit stop — Caledonia64 m
- retail — Art Collective CODA72 m
- transit stop — Laughton73 m
- retail — West York Appliances & Furniture76 m
- retail — Sandro's Barber Shop80 m
- restaurant — Dairy Freeze80 m
- restaurant — Samba89 m
- retail — City Nails90 m
- retail — Lucky Star Flowers93 m
- transit stop — Davenport Rd at Caledonia Park Rd95 m
- retail — Dollar & Variety Store95 m
- restaurant — Kapital Resturant and Grill97 m
- retail — Golden Star101 m
- rail — Newmarket Subdivision102 m
- retail — Sister's Choice102 m
- retail — Boston Variety104 m
- restaurant — Flor do Ave109 m
- transit stop — Caledonia Park Road109 m
- parking lot — Carpark 133111 m
- parking lot113 m
- retail — St. Clair Bakery118 m
- transit stop — Davenport Rd at Symington Ave120 m
- transit stop — Davenport Rd at Symington Ave123 m
- retail — Caledonia Bakery & Pastry128 m
- cafe — Lido Caffe128 m
- restaurant — El Rancherito132 m
- retail — Bad Buddha Tattoes134 m
- transit stop — Caledonia Road136 m
- transit stop — Caledonia139 m
- cafe — Aunty Em's Deli & Coffee156 m
- parking lot157 m
- transit stop — St Clair Avenue West157 m
- transit stop — Laughton158 m
- restaurant — Da Silva Sports Bar & Grill168 m
- parking lot171 m
- parking lot174 m
- restaurant — Unique Cafe Restaurant178 m
- retail — Nova Era180 m
- restaurant — Sabors Tradicionais184 m
- retail — Librarie Mosaique188 m
- retail — Sunshine Market190 m
- restaurant — Marina’s Casa da Comida193 m
- retail — Lovely Story196 m
- parking lot197 m
Park profile
Five-axis radar across the structural dimensions.
Citywide percentile ranks
Across all Toronto parks in the dataset.
- Overall vitality26th
- Edge activation66th
- Connectivity84th
- Amenity diversity64th
- Natural comfort60th
- Enclosure68th
Most similar parks
Closest in metric space across the five structural dimensions.
- York CemeteryOther34
- Moore Park RavineRavine / Naturalized Park34
- Nicol Macnicol ParketteParkette37
- Tam O'Shanter Golf CourseRavine / Naturalized Park33
- West Highland Creek WatercourseWaterfront Park38
Most opposite parks
Furthest in metric space — useful for recognising what kind of park this isn’t.
- Leslie Grove ParkParkette68
- Kew GardensNeighbourhood Park71
- Joseph Burr Tyrrell ParkUrban Plaza50
- Trca Lands ( 26)Ravine / Naturalized Park27
- Toronto Islands - Muggs Island ParkRavine / Naturalized Park25
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 Toronto 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.
- Diversify what people can do in the park — playground, washroom, water, shade, performance, sport, garden — even small additions raise this score.
- 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.