Etobicoke Hydro Green Space
Parkette, middle of the pack overall (score 33, rank ~45th percentile). Strongest: edge activation; weakest: natural comfort.
Aerial — City of Toronto orthophoto, ~8 cm/px source · cached 5/9/2026
Etobicoke Hydro Green Space scores 33 / 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 · 0.18 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 33 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 (61) but the surrounding streets are quiet (edge activation 22) — frame without animation.
Typology classification
Classified as Parkette: small (1830 m²) with strong building frontage (22.4 per 100 m)
Edge Activation
Within 100 m of the park edge: 5 active uses (cafe, restaurant, transit_stop) 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 7 sidewalk segments within 50 m; 2 street intersections within 100 m; 49 transit stops within a 400 m walk; 0 estimated access points across ~224 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 ~878 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
50 buildings within 25 m of the park edge (0 mid-rise, 50 low-rise, 0 tower); avg edge height 4.1 m (~1 floors); 22.4 buildings per 100 m of 224 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 (57)
- transit stop — Aukland Road South of Bloor Street4 m
- parking lot30 m
- parking lot66 m
- transit stop — Aukland Road North Of Dundas Street68 m
- cafe — Tim Hortons74 m
- restaurant — Wendy's80 m
- parking lot85 m
- transit stop — Auckland Road at Dundas Street91 m
- transit stop105 m
- highway — Dundas Street West109 m
- transit stop — Aukland Road112 m
- transit stop — Dundas Street West Of Aukland Road113 m
- highway — Dundas Street West117 m
- highway — Dundas Street West118 m
- highway — Dundas Street West120 m
- highway — Dundas Street West122 m
- parking lot123 m
- parking lot125 m
- highway — Dundas Street West126 m
- transit stop — Aukland Road126 m
- parking lot129 m
- parking lot130 m
- highway — Dundas Street West132 m
- highway — Dundas Street West134 m
- transit stop138 m
- highway — Dundas Street West138 m
- transit stop — Auckland Road at Bloor Street140 m
- transit stop — Dundas Street at Acorn Avenue144 m
- retail — Farm Boy145 m
- highway — Dundas Street West146 m
- parking lot149 m
- parking lot152 m
- highway — Dundas Street West158 m
- highway — Dundas Street West158 m
- parking lot160 m
- highway — Dundas Street West161 m
- cafe — Starbucks165 m
- retail — Shell Select165 m
- retail — Nu’s Hair Studio166 m
- restaurant — Donatelli’s Pizzeria166 m
- retail — Elegant Nails & Spa166 m
- restaurant — Pho House166 m
- retail — Wine Rack167 m
- retail — Wellwise167 m
- retail — First Choice Hair173 m
- highway — Dundas Street West177 m
- parking lot178 m
- retail — Reid's Custom Upholstery180 m
- retail — Chatr182 m
- retail — Pet Valu185 m
- parking lot187 m
- cafe — imPerfect Fresh Café188 m
- parking lot192 m
- highway — Dundas Street West193 m
- highway — Dundas Street West193 m
- transit stop — Bloor Street at Acorn Drive195 m
- highway — Dundas Street West196 m
Park profile
Five-axis radar across the structural dimensions.
Citywide percentile ranks
Across all Toronto parks in the dataset.
- Overall vitality45th
- Edge activation79th
- Connectivity47th
- Amenity diversity65th
- Natural comfort4th
- Enclosure37th
Most similar parks
Closest in metric space across the five structural dimensions.
- Caverley Boulevard SouthParkette35
- Renforth Baptist CemeteryParkette31
- Jeanette ParkParkette34
- City Wide Open SpaceParkette34
- Saunders Crescent ParketteParkette34
Most opposite parks
Furthest in metric space — useful for recognising what kind of park this isn’t.
- Kew GardensNeighbourhood Park71
- Trca Lands ( 26)Ravine / Naturalized Park27
- High ParkRavine / Naturalized Park47
- Rouge ParkRavine / Naturalized Park28
- 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 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.
- 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.