Thompson Street Parkette
Urban Plaza, one of the city's strongest overall (score 50, rank ~95th percentile). Strongest: edge activation; weakest: natural comfort.
Aerial — City of Toronto orthophoto, ~8 cm/px source · cached 5/9/2026
Thompson Street Parkette scores 49.9 / 100. Strongest dimensions: enclosure / eyes on park and connectivity. Weakest: amenity diversity (11.9). Border-vacuum risk is low. This score is a transparent reading of Jane Jacobs-style vitality factors — not a definitive judgment.
Area · 0.14 ha
Weighted across six dimensions · confidence 66%
Scores are not bell-curved. Percentiles and expected scores provide context without changing the underlying model.
Explain this score
Where did the 50 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
- This park is a strong overperformer for its cohort — raw 50 versus an expected 36 for similar parks (pocket Urban Plaza) (gap +14).
Typology classification
Classified as Urban Plaza: 1435 m², paved (0% canopy), 30.8 buildings/100 m
Edge Activation
Within 100 m of the park edge: 41 active uses (restaurant, retail, transit_stop) and 5 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 23 sidewalk segments within 50 m; 17 street intersections within 100 m; 13 transit stops within a 400 m walk; 0 estimated access points across ~185 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
1 distinct amenity types in the park (dog_area). Diversity, not raw count, drives the score so a park with many distinct activity types can outrank a larger park that repeats the same use.
Source: Toronto Parks & Recreation Facilities + OSM amenity tags
Natural Comfort
Natural-comfort components for this park: ~2.8% effective canopy (0.0% from contiguous tree polygons + scattered tree density); nearest waterbody ~307 m; 4 city-mapped trees inside the polygon (4.0/ha). Reading: exposed. Source coverage: waterbodies, street_trees. 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
57 buildings within 25 m of the park edge (18 mid-rise, 39 low-rise, 0 tower); avg edge height 8.1 m (~3 floors); 30.8 buildings per 100 m of 185 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 18 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 (1 types · 1 records)
- dog area
Nearby active-edge features (80)
- restaurant — The Broadview Bistro+Bar19 m
- transit stop — Queen Street East24 m
- restaurant — Prohibition Gastrohouse29 m
- restaurant — The Rooftop33 m
- parking lot37 m
- retail — Red Label Tattoo39 m
- restaurant — Eastbound Brewing Company40 m
- restaurant — Ali Baba's41 m
- retail — Canna Cabana41 m
- restaurant — The Civic41 m
- restaurant — Aura42 m
- restaurant — Riverside Burgers42 m
- restaurant — Pizza Nova44 m
- restaurant — Pizza Pizza44 m
- restaurant — White Lily Dinner50 m
- restaurant — Liberty Shawarma51 m
- parking lot52 m
- restaurant — Urban House55 m
- transit stop — Broadview Avenue55 m
- retail — Riverside Market57 m
- retail59 m
- retail61 m
- restaurant — Pizzaiolo64 m
- transit stop — Broadview Avenue66 m
- retail — Better Cleaners69 m
- retail — Starbank Convenience Mart69 m
- restaurant — Happy Burger69 m
- restaurant — The West Cork70 m
- retail73 m
- retail73 m
- retail74 m
- parking lot74 m
- retail — Lorne & Co75 m
- retail — value Buds79 m
- retail — Naz Treasures.80 m
- retail — INS Market82 m
- retail — Stardust Vapes83 m
- restaurant — Delhiites83 m
- restaurant — Issander85 m
- retail — Fevers Vintage90 m
- retail — Diana90 m
- parking lot95 m
- retail — Second Voyage96 m
- restaurant — Subway96 m
- parking lot97 m
- transit stop — Carroll Street99 m
- restaurant — Burrito Queen100 m
- restaurant — Est101 m
- retail — Fortune Smoke & Gifts Store104 m
- retail — St John's Bakery105 m
- restaurant — Real Greek Gyros105 m
- retail — Butchers of Distinction109 m
- retail — St john's Eco Market114 m
- retail — Little Peeps119 m
- retail119 m
- retail — Kalamkaar121 m
- retail — Ride Away Bikes126 m
- cafe — ALK130 m
- restaurant — Wendy's133 m
- cafe — Dark Horse Espresso Bar138 m
- retail — Stephan Caras141 m
- restaurant — Slayer Burger142 m
- parking lot144 m
- retail — East Toronto Foot Care144 m
- parking lot144 m
- retail — Amavi Atelier145 m
- retail146 m
- retail — Broadview Beauty Parlour/George's Barbershop147 m
- retail — Downtown Toyota Pre-owned149 m
- retail — The Cannonball150 m
- retail — Hair Code152 m
- transit stop — Carroll Street152 m
- retail — Album Hair154 m
- restaurant — COPS154 m
- cafe — Isle of Coffee156 m
- retail156 m
- retail — Clinique de Mode160 m
- retail — Blackbird Bakery162 m
- retail — Core Realty162 m
- retail164 m
Park profile
Five-axis radar across the structural dimensions.
Citywide percentile ranks
Across all Toronto parks in the dataset.
- Overall vitality95th
- Edge activation95th
- Connectivity78th
- Amenity diversity85th
- Natural comfort32th
- Enclosure94th
Most similar parks
Closest in metric space across the five structural dimensions.
- S.H. ARMSTRONG COMMUNITY CENTRE - Building GroundsNeighbourhood Park49
- Bright Street PlaygroundUrban Plaza48
- Northumberland PlaygroundUrban Plaza46
- Dane ParketteNeighbourhood Park48
- Joseph Workman ParkUrban Plaza50
Most opposite parks
Furthest in metric space — useful for recognising what kind of park this isn’t.
- Trca Lands ( 26)Ravine / Naturalized Park27
- Toronto Islands - Muggs Island ParkRavine / Naturalized Park25
- Rouge ParkRavine / Naturalized Park28
- Rouge ParkWaterfront Park25
- Rouge ParkRavine / Naturalized Park26
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 Thompson Street Parkettematters. 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.