Larry Sefton Park
Civic Square, above average overall (score 40, rank ~77th percentile). Strongest: edge activation; weakest: natural comfort.
Aerial — City of Toronto orthophoto, ~8 cm/px source · cached 5/9/2026
Larry Sefton Park scores 40.3 / 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 · 0.12 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 40 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
- 15 nearby towers cast wind and shadow without contributing canopy — passive surveillance is plentiful but human-scale comfort is not.
Performance in context
- Citywide rank is high (77th) but typology rank is more modest (53rd) — the strength likely comes from the dataset average pulling lower than this typology’s baseline.
Typology classification
Classified as Civic Square: tower-walled, low canopy (0%), tight frontage — reads as a civic square
Edge Activation
Within 100 m of the park edge: 6 active uses (restaurant, transit_stop, cafe, retail) and 2 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 12 sidewalk segments within 50 m; 4 street intersections within 100 m; 54 transit stops within a 400 m walk; 0 estimated access points across ~148 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: ~3.5% effective canopy (0.0% from contiguous tree polygons + scattered tree density); 5 city-mapped trees inside the polygon (5.0/ha). Reading: exposed. Source coverage: 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
35 buildings within 25 m of the park edge (12 mid-rise, 8 low-rise, 15 tower); avg edge height 38.9 m (~13 floors); 23.7 buildings per 100 m of 148 m perimeter — strong frontage density; edges lean tall but still framed; 15 towers ≥ 40 m within 25 m of the edge. "Eyes on the park" come strongest from the 12 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 (80)
- transit stop — Hagerman Street0 m
- parking lot13 m
- transit stop — Hagerman Street30 m
- cafe — Aroma Espresso Bar72 m
- parking lot74 m
- cafe — Tim Hortons93 m
- restaurant — The Chestnut Tree95 m
- retail — Victoria Park Medispa97 m
- retail — Canadian Tire104 m
- transit stop — Dundas Street West110 m
- cafe — Starbucks113 m
- retail — Nails for You115 m
- retail — The UPS Store115 m
- restaurant — Top Hot Pot115 m
- retail — bbtease115 m
- restaurant — Denny's118 m
- restaurant — Japango122 m
- retail — Mark's126 m
- retail — Longo's127 m
- transit stop — Bay Street130 m
- community — Toronto Public Library - City Hall133 m
- restaurant — Yueh Tung Restaurant134 m
- retail — Best Buy137 m
- transit stop — Bay Street138 m
- restaurant — Kyoto House Japanese Restaurant140 m
- restaurant — Mo Gou Yan143 m
- restaurant — Hana Don144 m
- retail144 m
- retail — Butter Cake144 m
- restaurant — HolmPei Cafe Bistro144 m
- restaurant — You Don Ya145 m
- retail — Toronto Barber & Beauty Supply145 m
- cafe — Starbucks145 m
- restaurant — Tsujiri145 m
- cafe — Chatime146 m
- restaurant — Fifylan146 m
- retail — L'Amour146 m
- restaurant — Don Don Izakaya147 m
- restaurant — Brown Donkatsu147 m
- retail — Mini Market147 m
- transit stop — Dundas Street West147 m
- retail — Silver S.A. Jewelry148 m
- retail — Tuina148 m
- restaurant — Kimchi Korea House149 m
- restaurant — Bapo Korean Cuisine149 m
- retail150 m
- transit stop — Albert Street152 m
- retail — Terminal Barber Shop153 m
- retail — Circle K153 m
- cafe — Trinity Square Cafe153 m
- retail — Uncle Tetsu's Japanese Cheesecake154 m
- restaurant — Unholy Donuts156 m
- cafe — Mieluna Cafe159 m
- restaurant — Roywoods161 m
- cafe — Timothy's163 m
- restaurant — Chasha Express163 m
- restaurant — eggspectation164 m
- restaurant — Feta & Olives164 m
- restaurant — Gyubee Japanese Grill166 m
- restaurant — Poulet Rouge167 m
- retail — Petra Ave Market167 m
- parking lot168 m
- restaurant — New Treasure Restaurant169 m
- restaurant — Villa Madina171 m
- restaurant — KFC171 m
- retail — L'Attitudes Salon & Spa172 m
- retail — Terminal Barber Shop 2173 m
- retail — Rexall173 m
- retail — Style By Serkan173 m
- retail — Steve Madden174 m
- restaurant — Amaya Express174 m
- restaurant — Bourbon St. Grill175 m
- restaurant — Subway175 m
- restaurant — King Fries176 m
- cafe — Gong Cha177 m
- retail — Pandora177 m
- restaurant — McDonald's177 m
- restaurant — Thaï Express177 m
- transit stop — Albert Street178 m
- transit stop — Chestnut Street178 m
Park profile
Five-axis radar across the structural dimensions.
Citywide percentile ranks
Across all Toronto parks in the dataset.
- Overall vitality77th
- Edge activation90th
- Connectivity62th
- Amenity diversity66th
- Natural comfort21th
- Enclosure68th
Most similar parks
Closest in metric space across the five structural dimensions.
- City Wide Open SpaceUrban Plaza42
- Trca Lands ( 67)Waterfront Park41
- City Wide Open SpaceRavine / Naturalized Park39
- Etobicoke Hydro Green SpaceNeighbourhood Park42
- Tom Riley ParkParkette39
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 ParkRavine / Naturalized Park26
- Rouge ParkWaterfront 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 Larry Sefton Parkmatters. 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.