Etobicoke Hydro Green Space
Parkette, below average overall (score 29, rank ~25th percentile). Strongest: amenity diversity; weakest: natural comfort.
Aerial — City of Toronto orthophoto, ~8 cm/px source · cached 5/9/2026
Etobicoke Hydro Green Space scores 28.7 / 100. Strongest dimensions: enclosure / eyes on park and connectivity. 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 · 0.03 ha
Weighted across six dimensions · confidence 56%
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
- Connectivity (52) significantly outpaces natural comfort (24) — well placed in the city but offers little shade or ecological respite.
Typology classification
Classified as Parkette: small (335 m²) with strong building frontage (14.0 per 100 m)
Edge Activation
Within 100 m of the park edge: 10 active uses (cafe, restaurant, transit_stop, retail) and 11 dead/hostile uses (highway, 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 11 sidewalk segments within 50 m; 3 street intersections within 100 m; 53 transit stops within a 400 m walk; 0 estimated access points across ~89 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 components for this park: 0.0% estimated tree canopy; nearest waterbody ~791 m. Reading: exposed. Source coverage: 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
14 buildings within 25 m of the park edge (0 mid-rise, 14 low-rise, 0 tower); avg edge height 4.2 m (~1 floors); 14.0 buildings per 100 m of 89 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 (63)
- transit stop — Aukland Road North Of Dundas Street12 m
- transit stop — Aukland Road South of Bloor Street20 m
- parking lot31 m
- transit stop — Auckland Road at Dundas Street39 m
- transit stop48 m
- parking lot51 m
- cafe — Tim Hortons52 m
- transit stop — Aukland Road57 m
- highway — Dundas Street West61 m
- highway — Dundas Street West61 m
- restaurant — Wendy's65 m
- highway — Dundas Street West67 m
- highway — Dundas Street West67 m
- highway — Dundas Street West69 m
- transit stop — Aukland Road78 m
- highway — Dundas Street West79 m
- highway — Dundas Street West84 m
- parking lot84 m
- transit stop — Dundas Street West Of Aukland Road87 m
- parking lot88 m
- retail — Farm Boy89 m
- transit stop104 m
- highway — Dundas Street West104 m
- highway — Dundas Street West110 m
- highway — Dundas Street West115 m
- parking lot118 m
- cafe — Starbucks124 m
- restaurant — Donatelli’s Pizzeria126 m
- restaurant — Pho House126 m
- highway — Dundas Street West127 m
- retail — Wine Rack127 m
- parking lot128 m
- retail — Wellwise128 m
- retail — Nu’s Hair Studio130 m
- retail — Elegant Nails & Spa131 m
- transit stop — Dundas Street at Acorn Avenue132 m
- cafe — imPerfect Fresh Café133 m
- highway — Dundas Street West141 m
- highway — Dundas Street West150 m
- highway — Dundas Street West151 m
- parking lot154 m
- parking lot160 m
- parking lot163 m
- parking lot168 m
- parking lot172 m
- highway — Dundas Street West174 m
- parking lot174 m
- parking lot175 m
- parking lot176 m
- transit stop — Auckland Road at Bloor Street177 m
- highway — Dundas Street West179 m
- retail — First Choice Hair180 m
- retail — Chatr183 m
- retail — Pet Valu184 m
- highway — Dundas Street West190 m
- parking lot191 m
- parking lot193 m
- retail — Shell Select195 m
- retail — Reid's Custom Upholstery195 m
- parking lot197 m
- parking lot198 m
- transit stop — Kipling Station North Parking Lot199 m
- highway — Dundas Street West199 m
Park profile
Five-axis radar across the structural dimensions.
Citywide percentile ranks
Across all Toronto parks in the dataset.
- Overall vitality25th
- Edge activation55th
- Connectivity58th
- Amenity diversity62th
- Natural comfort4th
- Enclosure31th
Most similar parks
Closest in metric space across the five structural dimensions.
- ST. GASPAR CSS - Building GroundsNeighbourhood Park30
- Public Access PropertyCorridor / Linear Park30
- Etobicoke Hydro Green SpaceNeighbourhood Park29
- City Wide Open SpaceCorridor / Linear Park31
- Cenotaph Traffic IslandCivic Square27
Most opposite parks
Furthest in metric space — useful for recognising what kind of park this isn’t.
- Kew GardensNeighbourhood Park71
- Leslie Grove ParkParkette68
- Market Lane ParkUrban Plaza63
- Sir Winston Churchill ParkRavine / Naturalized Park69
- Toronto ZooWaterfront Park57
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 Etobicoke 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.
- 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.