Dufferin Hill Park
Parkette, one of the city's strongest overall (score 51, rank ~96th percentile). Strongest: edge activation; weakest: amenity diversity.
Aerial — City of Toronto orthophoto, ~8 cm/px source · cached 5/9/2026
Dufferin Hill Park scores 50.7 / 100. Strongest dimensions: enclosure / eyes on park and natural comfort. 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 · 0.15 ha
Weighted across six dimensions · confidence 59%
Scores are not bell-curved. Percentiles and expected scores provide context without changing the underlying model.
Explain this score
Where did the 51 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
Performance in context
- This park is a strong overperformer for its cohort — raw 51 versus an expected 31 for similar parks (pocket Parkette) (gap +19).
Typology classification
Classified as Parkette: small (1491 m²) with strong building frontage (35.9 per 100 m)
Edge Activation
Within 100 m of the park edge: 10 active uses (transit_stop, retail) and 3 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 6 mapped paths/walkways and 6 sidewalk segments within 50 m; 4 street intersections within 100 m; 7 transit stops within a 400 m walk; 4 estimated access points across ~156 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: 50.0% estimated tree canopy; 7 city-mapped trees inside the polygon (7.0/ha). Reading: partially shaded. Source coverage: treed_area, 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
56 buildings within 25 m of the park edge (14 mid-rise, 42 low-rise, 0 tower); avg edge height 6.7 m (~2 floors); 35.9 buildings per 100 m of 156 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 14 mid-rise edge buildings.
Source: Toronto 3D Massing (building footprints + heights)
Border Vacuum Risk
Park edges face the city — no significant border vacuum detected.
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 (36)
- transit stop — Dufferin St at Briar Hill Ave24 m
- transit stop — Dufferin St at Briar Hill Ave25 m
- parking lot54 m
- retail — Goodyear62 m
- parking lot65 m
- transit stop — Stayner Avenue72 m
- retail — Unique Cleaners72 m
- retail — Avenue 22 Bridal75 m
- retail — IGO Optical91 m
- parking lot91 m
- retail — Rhonrose Printing and Copy92 m
- retail — HearingLife96 m
- retail — Vibagio Hair Studio97 m
- parking lot110 m
- retail — Century Builders Hardware Ltd.127 m
- transit stop — Wingold Avenue127 m
- parking lot132 m
- parking lot134 m
- cafe — Tim Hortons135 m
- retail — Solo Vape147 m
- parking lot155 m
- restaurant — Taste of Shawarma156 m
- parking lot156 m
- retail — Star Binz Liquidation157 m
- retail — Girls Beauty Clinic159 m
- transit stop — Castlefield Avenue161 m
- parking lot163 m
- parking lot170 m
- restaurant — Toronto Pho170 m
- parking lot174 m
- parking lot175 m
- retail — Consumers Lighting & Lamps177 m
- retail — LF Optical180 m
- parking lot183 m
- parking lot183 m
- parking lot185 m
Park profile
Five-axis radar across the structural dimensions.
Citywide percentile ranks
Across all Toronto parks in the dataset.
- Overall vitality96th
- Edge activation91th
- Connectivity71th
- Amenity diversity40th
- Natural comfort86th
- Enclosure90th
Most similar parks
Closest in metric space across the five structural dimensions.
- City Wide Open SpaceParkette51
- Avalon ParketteParkette49
- Diamond Jubilee PromenadeCorridor / Linear Park50
- Willis Blair ParketteParkette52
- West Highland Creek WatercourseWaterfront Park46
Most opposite parks
Furthest in metric space — useful for recognising what kind of park this isn’t.
- Rouge ParkRavine / Naturalized Park18
- Trca Lands ( 58)Waterfront Park18
- Rouge ParkRavine / Naturalized Park21
- City Wide Open SpaceWaterfront Park21
- Rouge ParkRavine / Naturalized Park19
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 Dufferin Hill 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.
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.