Civic Squarecluster ·Walkable Mid-Rise Neighbourhood Parks (enclosure-leaning)Cliffcrest (123)confidence moderatereal Toronto data

Resthaven Memorial Gardens

Civic Square, near the bottom of the city overall (score 25, rank ~12th percentile). Strongest: connectivity; weakest: edge activation.

Aerial — City of Toronto orthophoto, ~8 cm/px source · cached 5/9/2026

Resthaven Memorial Gardens scores 25.1 / 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.

Best for:public eventsdowntown gathering

Area · 16.93 ha

Vitality Score

25/100

Weighted across six dimensions · confidence 63%

Data Confidence

25.1 / 100

Citywide

12th

of all 3,273 parks

Among Civic Square

7th

same primary typology

Expected for similar parks

median in Civic Square (n=74)

Performance gap

-15

raw − expected · context confidence high

strong underperformer

Scores are not bell-curved. Percentiles and expected scores provide context without changing the underlying model.

Explain this score

Where did the 25 come from? Each weighted contribution against a neutral 50 baseline. Green = pushed up; red = pulled down.

Download JSON

What pushed this score up or down vs a neutral 50weight × score

Edge Activation0 · p9

-12.5

Amenity Diversity0 · p14

-10.0

Border Vacuum Risk100 (risk)

-5.0

Connectivity65 · p83

+3.1

Natural Comfort33 · p16

-2.6

Enclosure / Eyes on Park71 · p70

+2.1

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

Resthaven Memorial Gardens works because its connectivity score (65) is above average and its enclosure (71) is also above-average (29 transit stops sit within a 400 m walk; 16 intersections fall within 100 m of the edge).

What limits this park

Resthaven Memorial Gardens is held back by edge activation (0, bottom quartile)— the surrounding streets carry too few active uses to spill into the park; border-vacuum risk is also elevated (100).

Most distinctive characteristic

Most distinctive feature: exceptionally low edge activation (0, bottom quartile).

Jacobs reading

Resthaven Memorial Gardens sits between an urban social park and an ecological retreat — moderately useful for both, exceptionally suited to neither.

Tradeoffs

Connectivity (65) significantly outpaces natural comfort (33) — well placed in the city but offers little shade or ecological respite.
The park is enclosed by buildings (71) but the surrounding streets are quiet (edge activation 0) — 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

Strong underperformer relative to its cohort — raw 25 vs an expected 40 (gap -15).

Typology classification

confidence 75%

Civic Squarealso reads as Neighbourhood Park

Classified as Civic Square: name flags as civic square + 9.4 buildings per 100 m frontage. Secondary read: Neighbourhood Park (16.9 ha, framed by 21 mid-rise vs 0 towers).

Edge Activation

25% weightpartial 60%

0.0 / 100

Within 100 m of the park edge: 15 active uses (transit_stop) and 17 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

20% weightmeasured 85%

65.3 / 100

Connectivity blends paths, intersections, transit, entrances, and edge density. This park has 0 mapped paths/walkways and 34 sidewalk segments within 50 m; 16 street intersections within 100 m; 29 transit stops within a 400 m walk; 0 estimated access points across ~1,725 m of perimeter. moderate edge density — small superblock penalty applied. Source coverage: centreline, pedestrian_network, transit_osm.

Streets within 25 m11

Intersections within 100 m16

Paths/walkways (50 m)0

Sidewalk segments (50 m)34

Transit stops (400 m)29

Estimated entrances0

Edge connections / 100 m perimeter0.64

Park perimeter1,725 m

Source: Toronto Centreline V2 + Pedestrian Network + OSM transit stops

Amenity Diversity

20% weightinferred 30%

0.0 / 100

No amenities recorded — score is 0 until inventory is loaded.

Source: Toronto Parks & Recreation Facilities + OSM amenity tags

Natural Comfort

15% weightmeasured 75%

32.9 / 100

Natural-comfort components for this park: 0.9% estimated tree canopy; nearest waterbody ~1249 m. Reading: exposed. Source coverage: treed_area, waterbodies. Impervious surface is approximated (Toronto's authoritative layer ships only as a raster GeoTIFF).

Canopy coverage0.9%

Canopy area0.15 ha

Inside ravine system0.0%

Water surface inside park0.0%

Nearest water (if outside park)1,249 m

Estimated green100.0%

City-mapped trees inside polygon0

Tree density0.0 / ha

Cover diversity (Shannon, 0–100)7.4

Sample points used222

Source: Toronto Treed Area + Ravine + Waterbodies + Street Tree Inventory

Enclosure / Eyes on Park

10% weightmeasured 80%

70.7 / 100

163 buildings within 25 m of the park edge (21 mid-rise, 142 low-rise, 0 tower); avg edge height 6.2 m (~2 floors); 9.4 buildings per 100 m of 1,725 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 21 mid-rise edge buildings.

Buildings within 25 m163

Buildings within 50 m163

Avg edge height6.2 m (~2 floors)

Tallest edge building25.9 m

Mid-rise (3–7 floors)21

Low-rise (< 3 floors)142

Towers (≥ 13 floors)0

Frontage density9.45 per 100 m perimeter

Mid-rise share of edge13%

Tower share of edge0%

Blank-edge share (proxy)0%

Park perimeter1,725 m

Source: Toronto 3D Massing (building footprints + heights)

Border Vacuum Risk

10% weightpartial 60%

100.0 risk

Border-vacuum factors within 50 m of the park: Kingston Road, Kingston Road, Kingston Road, Kingston Road, parking_lot, parking_lot, parking_lot, parking_lot, 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

contextinferred 15%

50.0 / 100

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 (43)

transit stop — St. Clair Avenue at Andrew Avenue0 m
transit stop — St. Clair Avenue at Brimley Road0 m
transit stop — Resthaven Memorial Gardens2 m
transit stop — Kingston Rd at Brimley Rd3 m
transit stop — Brimley Road at St. Clair Avenue East South Side3 m
highway — Kingston Road8 m
transit stop — Brimley Rd at Kingston Rd19 m
transit stop — Brimley Road at St. Clair Avenue East20 m
transit stop — St. Clair Avenue at Andrew Avenue22 m
transit stop — St. Clair Avenue at Brimley Road West Side23 m
highway — Kingston Road24 m
highway — Kingston Road24 m
parking lot28 m
parking lot30 m
transit stop — 2661 Kingston Rd31 m
transit stop — Kingston Rd at Brimley Rd32 m
highway — Kingston Road33 m
transit stop — St. Clair Avenue at Jeanette Street40 m
parking lot42 m
parking lot43 m
transit stop — Brimley Road at St. Clair Avenue East46 m
parking lot46 m
transit stop — Brimley Rd at Kingston Rd62 m
parking lot63 m
parking lot64 m
highway — Kingston Road64 m
parking lot68 m
parking lot80 m
parking lot83 m
highway — Kingston Road85 m
transit stop — Chine Drive92 m
parking lot98 m
transit stop — St. Clair Avenue at Gidley Road111 m
parking lot113 m
transit stop — Chine Drive123 m
highway — Kingston Road128 m
parking lot130 m
parking lot141 m
parking lot168 m
highway — Kingston Road183 m
transit stop — St. Clair Avenue at Fermoy Road185 m
transit stop — Brimley Rd at Mandarin Rd194 m
parking lot197 m

Park profile

Five-axis radar across the structural dimensions.

Citywide percentile ranks

Across all Toronto parks in the dataset.

Overall vitality
12th
Edge activation
9th
Connectivity
83th
Amenity diversity
14th
Natural comfort
16th
Enclosure
70th

Most similar parks

Closest in metric space across the five structural dimensions.

Paperbirch WalkwayCorridor / Linear Park34
North York Hydro Green SpaceOther28
Reading Sprouts GardenParkette34
STEPHEN LEACOCK COLLEGIATE INSTITUTE - Building GroundsNeighbourhood Park26
Humber Bay Promenade ParkCorridor / Linear Park25

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
Mclevin Woods ParkRavine / Naturalized Park49
Leslie Grove ParkParkette68
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 Resthaven Memorial Gardensmatters. 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.
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 Facilities
Inventory of in-park amenities (washrooms, fields, rinks…).
Toronto Pedestrian Network
Sidewalk segments around and through parks; estimated park entrances.
Toronto Centreline V2
Street segments + intersection nodes near park edges; trails and walkways.
Toronto 3D Massing
Building footprints + heights for edge-building counts, frontage density, and tower-in-the-park risk.
Toronto Treed Area
Tree canopy share inside park polygons via stratified-grid sampling.
Toronto Waterbodies & Rivers
Water surface inside parks + nearest-water distance for cooling.
Ravine & Natural Feature Protection
Ravine overlap as a cooling / natural-comfort signal.
Toronto Street Tree Inventory
Tree count + density inside park polygons.
Neighbourhood Profiles
(Pending) Equity context proxy.
OpenStreetMap (Overpass API)
Cafés, restaurants, retail, transit stops, parking, highways, rail.