Garrison Common
Neighbourhood Park, near the bottom of the city overall (score 22, rank ~6th percentile). Strongest: connectivity; weakest: natural comfort.
Aerial — City of Toronto orthophoto, ~8 cm/px source · cached 5/9/2026
Garrison Common scores 22.3 / 100. Strongest dimensions: connectivity and enclosure / eyes on park. 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.
Area · 2.49 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 22 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
- Connectivity (66) significantly outpaces natural comfort (25) — well placed in the city but offers little shade or ecological respite.
- 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 22 vs an expected 37 (gap -15).
Typology classification
Classified as Neighbourhood Park: 2.5 ha, framed by 5 mid-rise vs 2 towers
Edge Activation
Within 100 m of the park edge: 0 active uses (none) and 15 dead/hostile uses (rail, parking_lot, highway). 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 20 mapped paths/walkways and 6 sidewalk segments within 50 m; 7 street intersections within 100 m; 21 transit stops within a 400 m walk; 7 estimated access points across ~795 m of perimeter. moderate edge density — small superblock penalty applied. 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 ~608 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
13 buildings within 25 m of the park edge (5 mid-rise, 6 low-rise, 2 tower); avg edge height 21.9 m (~7 floors); 1.6 buildings per 100 m of 795 m perimeter — moderate frontage density; edges lean tall but still framed; 2 towers ≥ 40 m within 25 m of the edge. "Eyes on the park" come strongest from the 5 mid-rise edge buildings.
Source: Toronto 3D Massing (building footprints + heights)
Border Vacuum Risk
Border-vacuum factors within 50 m of the park: Western Lead, Oakville Subdivision, rail, Oakville Subdivision, parking_lot, Gardiner Expressway, Oakville Subdivision, Oakville Subdivision, Oakville Subdivision. 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 (54)
- parking lot0 m
- rail — Oakville Subdivision21 m
- rail23 m
- rail — Oakville Subdivision31 m
- rail — Oakville Subdivision34 m
- highway — Gardiner Expressway39 m
- rail — Oakville Subdivision40 m
- rail — Oakville Subdivision40 m
- rail — Western Lead49 m
- rail — Oakville Subdivision50 m
- parking lot58 m
- parking lot61 m
- rail — Oakville Subdivision68 m
- rail — Oakville Subdivision84 m
- rail — Oakville Subdivision99 m
- rail — Union Station Rail Corridor106 m
- rail107 m
- parking lot114 m
- parking lot116 m
- parking lot118 m
- rail — Union Station Rail Corridor125 m
- rail125 m
- rail — Union Station Rail Corridor126 m
- retail — Wine Rack131 m
- rail134 m
- transit stop — Fleet Street136 m
- cafe — Starbucks136 m
- rail — Union Station Rail Corridor145 m
- rail — Oakville Subdivision147 m
- rail — Union Station Rail Corridor147 m
- parking lot147 m
- transit stop151 m
- retail — Floral & Decor153 m
- transit stop — Fleet Street155 m
- rail — Union Station Rail Corridor157 m
- transit stop — Fleet Street157 m
- rail — Union Station Rail Corridor163 m
- transit stop — Fleet St at Fort York Blvd West Side164 m
- rail — Union Station Rail Corridor172 m
- transit stop176 m
- rail — Union Station Rail Corridor178 m
- rail — Union Station Rail Corridor180 m
- rail — Union Station Rail Corridor181 m
- restaurant — Forest Hill Farmhouse181 m
- rail — Metrolinx Oakville Subdivision182 m
- rail187 m
- transit stop — Strachan Avenue188 m
- transit stop189 m
- transit stop — Fleet St at Strachan Ave190 m
- rail — Union Station Rail Corridor193 m
- restaurant — Fort York Pizzeria194 m
- rail — Oakville Subdivision197 m
- transit stop — Fort York Blvd East Side197 m
- transit stop — Manitoba Dr at Strachan Ave West Side200 m
Park profile
Five-axis radar across the structural dimensions.
Citywide percentile ranks
Across all Toronto parks in the dataset.
- Overall vitality6th
- Edge activation44th
- Connectivity84th
- Amenity diversity49th
- Natural comfort6th
- Enclosure19th
Most similar parks
Closest in metric space across the five structural dimensions.
- Etobicoke Hydro Green SpaceNeighbourhood Park22
- Scarborough Hydro Green SpaceCorridor / Linear Park23
- City Wide Open SpaceOther22
- Scarborough Hydro Green SpaceOther21
- City Wide Open SpaceOther21
Most opposite parks
Furthest in metric space — useful for recognising what kind of park this isn’t.
- Kew GardensNeighbourhood Park71
- Leslie Grove ParkParkette68
- Market Lane ParkUrban Plaza63
- Manor Community GreenUrban Plaza57
- Ryerson Community ParkUrban Plaza60
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 Garrison Commonmatters. 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 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.