Irene Avenue Parkette
Urban Plaza, middle of the pack overall (score 37, rank ~61th percentile). Strongest: connectivity; weakest: natural comfort.
Aerial — City of Toronto orthophoto, ~8 cm/px source · cached 5/9/2026
Irene Avenue Parkette scores 36.5 / 100. Strongest dimensions: enclosure / eyes on park and connectivity. Weakest: edge activation (10). Border-vacuum risk is elevated (100). This score is a transparent reading of Jane Jacobs-style vitality factors — not a definitive judgment.
Area · 0.15 ha
Weighted across six dimensions · confidence 63%
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.
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 (81) significantly outpaces natural comfort (50) — well placed in the city but offers little shade or ecological respite.
- The park is enclosed by buildings (81) but the surrounding streets are quiet (edge activation 10) — 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.
Typology classification
Classified as Urban Plaza: 1522 m², paved (0% canopy), 39.9 buildings/100 m
Edge Activation
Within 100 m of the park edge: 54 active uses (retail, cafe, restaurant) and 10 dead/hostile uses (parking_lot, highway, rail). 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 10 mapped paths/walkways and 31 sidewalk segments within 50 m; 19 street intersections within 100 m; 21 transit stops within a 400 m walk; 8 estimated access points across ~191 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 (playground). 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 requires inputs not yet loaded for this park (Treed Area / Ravine / Waterbodies / Street Trees). Score is held at a neutral 50 with low confidence — read with caution.
Source: Treed Area / Ravine / Waterbodies / Street Trees
Enclosure / Eyes on Park
76 buildings within 25 m of the park edge (4 mid-rise, 72 low-rise, 0 tower); avg edge height 7.3 m (~2 floors); 39.9 buildings per 100 m of 191 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 4 mid-rise edge buildings.
Source: Toronto 3D Massing (building footprints + heights)
Border Vacuum Risk
Border-vacuum factors within 50 m of the park: Bloor Street West, Bloor-Danforth Line, Bloor-Danforth Line, Bloor-Danforth Line, Bloor-Danforth Line, Bloor Street West, Bloor Street West. 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)
- playground
Nearby active-edge features (80)
- rail — Bloor-Danforth Line6 m
- rail — Bloor-Danforth Line6 m
- rail — Bloor-Danforth Line6 m
- restaurant — Shrinking Violet23 m
- retail — Cock-A-Doodle-Doo Gluten-Free Bakeshop23 m
- retail — Eweknit24 m
- restaurant — Little Sito28 m
- restaurant — Tallboys Craft Beer House28 m
- retail — Black Lion Hair Salon & Barber Shop29 m
- restaurant — Jolly Bar & Resturant29 m
- restaurant — Habesha Sports Bar & Cafe29 m
- restaurant — Bar Hwunet & Cafe32 m
- restaurant — Vịt Béo36 m
- highway — Bloor Street West41 m
- restaurant — Eggsmart43 m
- highway — Bloor Street West43 m
- highway — Bloor Street West46 m
- rail — Bloor-Danforth Line49 m
- restaurant — Menalon Restaurant52 m
- retail — A L Mini Mart53 m
- retail — Woof! Dog Shop & Daycare53 m
- retail — Shaw Coin Laundry55 m
- retail — Toronto Darts & Games57 m
- retail — Kelaima Beauty & Health Design57 m
- retail — Cosmopolitan Salon YYZ57 m
- retail — Designs By Nature Gems57 m
- retail — Gluten Free by L’Artisan58 m
- retail — Vince Gasparro's Meat Market58 m
- restaurant — Electric Bill59 m
- restaurant — Christie Pits Pub60 m
- restaurant — Riki Sushi62 m
- retail — Freta Injera & Variety Store65 m
- restaurant — Selam Restaurant & Lounge65 m
- retail — Bloorcourt Village Market65 m
- cafe — Saving Gigi68 m
- retail — Toronto Gold68 m
- retail — Lux Nails71 m
- restaurant — Fresh Habesha71 m
- retail72 m
- retail — 6ix Despensary74 m
- restaurant — La Bella Managua75 m
- retail — Clarisse Hair Salon75 m
- restaurant — Paku Food Group76 m
- highway — Bloor Street West77 m
- highway — Bloor Street West77 m
- retail — Ba Noi78 m
- retail — D&W Wellness79 m
- restaurant — Lalibela Lounge80 m
- cafe — Tim Hortons81 m
- parking lot — Toronto Parking Authority - Ossington81 m
- retail — Joo Beauty Salon83 m
- restaurant — Lalibela Restaurant84 m
- retail86 m
- retail — DK Nails & Hair87 m
- restaurant — Latin World90 m
- restaurant — Civil Liberties91 m
- retail — Bloomer's92 m
- retail93 m
- cafe — Hello Coffee94 m
- cafe — Star Glow95 m
- retail — Cheques Cashed95 m
- cafe — Chantecler99 m
- retail — Cowlick99 m
- retail — Frena Beauty Salon100 m
- cafe — ThirdPlace101 m
- retail — Ossington Minimart105 m
- retail — LCBO108 m
- retail — 180 Smoke Vape Store109 m
- restaurant — Monica's Bar112 m
- restaurant — Bloor Street Bar & Grill114 m
- restaurant — Gochu Libre114 m
- highway — Bloor Street West114 m
- retail — Ellis Cleaners116 m
- retail — Yatana Variety Store117 m
- restaurant — Tahini's118 m
- retail — Ossington Barber Shop119 m
- transit stop — Ossington Avenue120 m
- rail — Bloor-Danforth Line121 m
- highway — Bloor Street West125 m
- restaurant — McDonald's126 m
Park profile
Five-axis radar across the structural dimensions.
Citywide percentile ranks
Across all Toronto parks in the dataset.
- Overall vitality61th
- Edge activation70th
- Connectivity99th
- Amenity diversity76th
- Natural comfort60th
- Enclosure85th
Most similar parks
Closest in metric space across the five structural dimensions.
- Ferrand Drive ParkParkette44
- Albert Standing ParkUrban Plaza36
- James Trimbee ParkUrban Plaza45
- Lamport Stadium ParkNeighbourhood Park37
- Michael Power ParkParkette40
Most opposite parks
Furthest in metric space — useful for recognising what kind of park this isn’t.
- Toronto Islands - Muggs Island ParkRavine / Naturalized Park25
- Trca Lands ( 26)Ravine / Naturalized Park27
- Rouge ParkRavine / Naturalized Park21
- 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 Irene Avenue 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.
- 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.