Parkettecluster ·Walkable Mid-Rise Neighbourhood Parks (enclosure-leaning)Forest Hill North (102)confidence lowreal Toronto data

Nicol Macnicol Parkette

Parkette, middle of the pack overall (score 37, rank ~64th percentile). Strongest: connectivity; weakest: edge activation.

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

Nicol Macnicol Parkette scores 37.2 / 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.

Best for:a quiet siteveryday neighbourhood use

Area · 0.66 ha

Vitality Score

37/100

Weighted across six dimensions · confidence 38%

Data Confidence

37.2 / 100

Citywide

64th

of all 3,273 parks

Among Parkette

71st

same primary typology

Expected for similar parks

median in small Parkette (n=218)

Performance gap

raw − expected · context confidence high

typical

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

Explain this score

Where did the 37 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 · p36

-12.5

Amenity Diversity0 · p43

-10.0

Border Vacuum Risk0 (risk)

+5.0

Connectivity63 · p79

+2.6

Enclosure / Eyes on Park70 · p68

+2.0

Natural Comfort50 · p61

+0.1

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

Nicol Macnicol Parkette works because its connectivity score (63) is above average and its enclosure (70) is also above-average (16 intersections fall within 100 m of the edge).

What limits this park

Nicol Macnicol Parkette doesn't have a clear weakness — every measured dimension is at or above the middle of the pack.

Most distinctive characteristic

Most distinctive feature: exceptionally high connectivity (63, top quartile).

Jacobs reading

Nicol Macnicol Parkette sits between an urban social park and an ecological retreat — moderately useful for both, exceptionally suited to neither.

Tradeoffs

The park is enclosed by buildings (70) but the surrounding streets are quiet (edge activation 0) — frame without animation.

Typology classification

confidence 70%

Parkette

Classified as Parkette: small (6559 m²) with strong building frontage (11.7 per 100 m)

Edge Activation

25% weightinferred 10%

0.0 / 100

Within 100 m of the park edge: 0 active uses (none) and 0 dead/hostile uses (none). 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% weightpartial 65%

63.1 / 100

Connectivity blends paths, intersections, transit, entrances, and edge density. This park has 25 mapped paths/walkways and 28 sidewalk segments within 50 m; 16 street intersections within 100 m; 0 transit stops within a 400 m walk; 11 estimated access points across ~555 m of perimeter. edge density is healthy — no superblock penalty. Source coverage: centreline, pedestrian_network.

Streets within 25 m18

Intersections within 100 m16

Paths/walkways (50 m)25

Sidewalk segments (50 m)28

Transit stops (400 m)0

Estimated entrances11

Edge connections / 100 m perimeter3.25

Park perimeter555 m

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

Amenity Diversity

20% weightinferred 10%

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%

50.4 / 100

Natural-comfort components for this park: 13.0% estimated tree canopy; nearest waterbody ~1436 m; 14 city-mapped trees inside the polygon (14.0/ha). Reading: exposed. Source coverage: treed_area, waterbodies, street_trees. Impervious surface is approximated (Toronto's authoritative layer ships only as a raster GeoTIFF).

Canopy coverage13.0%

Canopy area0.09 ha

Inside ravine system0.0%

Water surface inside park0.0%

Nearest water (if outside park)1,436 m

Estimated green100.0%

City-mapped trees inside polygon14

Tree density14.0 / ha

Cover diversity (Shannon, 0–100)55.9

Sample points used46

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

Enclosure / Eyes on Park

10% weightmeasured 80%

69.8 / 100

65 buildings within 25 m of the park edge (3 mid-rise, 62 low-rise, 0 tower); avg edge height 6.9 m (~2 floors); 11.7 buildings per 100 m of 555 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 3 mid-rise edge buildings.

Buildings within 25 m65

Buildings within 50 m65

Avg edge height6.9 m (~2 floors)

Tallest edge building10.0 m

Mid-rise (3–7 floors)3

Low-rise (< 3 floors)62

Towers (≥ 13 floors)0

Frontage density11.72 per 100 m perimeter

Mid-rise share of edge5%

Tower share of edge0%

Blank-edge share (proxy)0%

Park perimeter555 m

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

Border Vacuum Risk

10% weightinferred 10%

0.0 risk

Park edges face the city — no significant border vacuum detected.

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 (0)

No nearby features within 200 m of this park edge.

Park profile

Five-axis radar across the structural dimensions.

Citywide percentile ranks

Across all Toronto parks in the dataset.

Overall vitality
64th
Edge activation
36th
Connectivity
79th
Amenity diversity
43th
Natural comfort
61th
Enclosure
68th

Most similar parks

Closest in metric space across the five structural dimensions.

Moore Park RavineRavine / Naturalized Park34
Woolenscote ParketteParkette37
Black Creek Site EastRavine / Naturalized Park34
Taylor Creek ParkRavine / Naturalized Park30
Rekai Family ParketteRavine / Naturalized Park26

Most opposite parks

Furthest in metric space — useful for recognising what kind of park this isn’t.

Leslie Grove ParkParkette68
Kew GardensNeighbourhood Park71
Market Lane ParkUrban Plaza63
Joseph Burr Tyrrell ParkUrban Plaza50
Bellevue Square ParkCivic Square66

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 Nicol Macnicol 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.

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.