SCARBOROUGH VILLAGE RECREATION CENTRE - Building Grounds
Ravine / Naturalized Park, middle of the pack overall (score 31, rank ~37th percentile). Strongest: natural comfort; weakest: edge activation.
Aerial — City of Toronto orthophoto, ~8 cm/px source · cached 5/9/2026
SCARBOROUGH VILLAGE RECREATION CENTRE - Building Grounds scores 31.3 / 100. Strongest dimensions: natural comfort and enclosure / eyes on park. Weakest: edge activation (0). Border-vacuum risk is elevated (100). This score is a transparent reading of Jane Jacobs-style vitality factors — not a definitive judgment.
Area · 3.82 ha
Weighted across six dimensions · confidence 72%
Scores are not bell-curved. Percentiles and expected scores provide context without changing the underlying model.
Explain this score
Where did the 31 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
- Natural comfort (77) significantly outpaces connectivity (51) — restorative but hard to reach for daily use.
- The park is enclosed by buildings (72) but the surrounding streets are quiet (edge activation 0) — frame without animation.
Typology classification
Classified as Ravine / Naturalized Park: 50% ravine overlap, 34% canopy. Secondary read: Neighbourhood Park (3.8 ha, framed by 6 mid-rise vs 1 towers).
Edge Activation
Within 100 m of the park edge: 11 active uses (restaurant, transit_stop, retail, cafe) and 31 dead/hostile uses (highway, 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 13 sidewalk segments within 50 m; 6 street intersections within 100 m; 21 transit stops within a 400 m walk; 0 estimated access points across ~1,079 m of perimeter. low edge density — significant superblock penalty applied. 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 (community_centre). 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: 34.1% estimated tree canopy; 49.8% inside the ravine system; nearest waterbody ~1067 m; 12 city-mapped trees inside the polygon (3.1/ha). Reading: ravine-cooled. Source coverage: treed_area, ravine, 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
37 buildings within 25 m of the park edge (6 mid-rise, 30 low-rise, 1 tower); avg edge height 9.0 m (~3 floors); 3.4 buildings per 100 m of 1,079 m perimeter — strong frontage density; edges are at a Jacobs-scale walkable mid-rise (3–7 floors); 1 tower ≥ 40 m within 25 m of the edge. "Eyes on the park" come strongest from the 6 mid-rise edge buildings.
Source: Toronto 3D Massing (building footprints + heights)
Border Vacuum Risk
Border-vacuum factors within 50 m of the park: Markham Road, Markham Road, Markham Road, Markham Road, Kingston Road, Kingston Road, Kingston Road, Markham Road, Markham Road, Kingston Road, Markham Road, Markham Road, parking_lot, Kingston Road, parking_lot, parking_lot, Markham Road, Markham Road. 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)
- community centre
Nearby active-edge features (80)
- parking lot0 m
- parking lot0 m
- transit stop — Markham Road at Kingston Road North Side0 m
- transit stop — Markham Road at Markanna Drive5 m
- highway — Kingston Road13 m
- highway — Kingston Road13 m
- highway — Markham Road14 m
- highway — Markham Road15 m
- highway — Markham Road17 m
- highway — Markham Road18 m
- highway — Markham Road18 m
- highway — Markham Road20 m
- parking lot20 m
- highway — Kingston Road24 m
- highway — Markham Road25 m
- highway — Kingston Road28 m
- highway — Markham Road31 m
- transit stop — Markham Road at Markanna Drive31 m
- highway — Kingston Road43 m
- highway — Markham Road46 m
- transit stop — Markham Road at Kingston Road47 m
- highway — Markham Road49 m
- restaurant — Pizza Pizza55 m
- retail — M&M Convenience55 m
- retail — Creation Hair56 m
- highway — Markham Road56 m
- parking lot59 m
- highway — Kingston Road60 m
- parking lot60 m
- restaurant — Join Sushi63 m
- parking lot66 m
- transit stop — Kingston Road at Markham Road West Side73 m
- parking lot73 m
- parking lot75 m
- parking lot81 m
- cafe — Starbucks83 m
- parking lot86 m
- transit stop — Brinloor Boulevard88 m
- parking lot91 m
- parking lot95 m
- parking lot96 m
- parking lot97 m
- highway — Kingston Road104 m
- highway — Kingston Road106 m
- parking lot107 m
- transit stop — Kingston Road at Markham Road108 m
- highway — Kingston Road109 m
- retail — easyhome111 m
- parking lot119 m
- parking lot120 m
- highway — Kingston Road122 m
- highway — Markham Road126 m
- parking lot130 m
- highway — Kingston Road136 m
- transit stop — Markham Road at Eglinton Avenue East137 m
- restaurant — Sunrise137 m
- retail — K Mobile139 m
- retail — Cell Xperts141 m
- highway — Markham Road142 m
- transit stop — Eglinton Avenue at Markham Road East Side142 m
- retail — Clair's Hair Studio143 m
- parking lot145 m
- retail — Your Choice Nails & Spa145 m
- retail — Supplement King146 m
- retail — easyfinancial146 m
- parking lot148 m
- retail — Freedom Mobile149 m
- retail — Civil Optical150 m
- highway — Eglinton Avenue East150 m
- retail — Super Discount Store150 m
- highway — Eglinton Avenue East152 m
- highway — Markham Road153 m
- restaurant — Popeyes155 m
- retail — Dollarama156 m
- highway — Eglinton Avenue East159 m
- restaurant — Turtle Pizza & Wing162 m
- highway — Eglinton Avenue East165 m
- transit stop — Eglinton Ave at Cedar Dr167 m
- highway — Eglinton Avenue East170 m
- highway — Eglinton Avenue East170 m
Park profile
Five-axis radar across the structural dimensions.
Citywide percentile ranks
Across all Toronto parks in the dataset.
- Overall vitality37th
- Edge activation33th
- Connectivity56th
- Amenity diversity75th
- Natural comfort89th
- Enclosure73th
Most similar parks
Closest in metric space across the five structural dimensions.
- Topcliff ParkNeighbourhood Park40
- Old Mill Site ParkRavine / Naturalized Park43
- Upwood GreenbeltWaterfront Park34
- Riverlea ParkNeighbourhood Park39
- Southwell ParkNeighbourhood Park37
Most opposite parks
Furthest in metric space — useful for recognising what kind of park this isn’t.
- ALEX WILSON COMMUNITY GARDEN - Open Green SpaceUrban Plaza59
- Leslie Grove ParkParkette68
- Queen'S Quay Traffic IslandWaterfront Park49
- Sonya'S ParkUrban Plaza60
- Market Lane ParkUrban Plaza63
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 SCARBOROUGH VILLAGE RECREATION CENTRE - Building Groundsmatters. 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.