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Toronto Parks Atlas
Woolner Park, site photograph
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Neighbourhood Parkcluster ·Walkable Mid-Rise Neighbourhood Parks (large-scale)Rockcliffe-Smythe (111)confidence moderate

Woolner Park

Neighbourhood Park, in the top tier overall (score 51, rank ~95th percentile). Strongest: connectivity; weakest: enclosure.

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

Woolner Park scores 51.2 / 100. Strongest dimensions: connectivity and enclosure / eyes on park. Weakest: edge activation (20). Border-vacuum risk is elevated (36). This score is a transparent reading of Jane Jacobs-style vitality factors, not a definitive judgment.

Best fordaily urban lifefamilies

Area · 1.01 ha

What's here

Recreation
PlaygroundBasketballOff-leash dog areaFitness
Facilities
Drinking waterPicnic areaBenches
Vitality Score
51/100

Weighted across six dimensions · confidence 68%

Data Confidence
51.2 / 100
Citywide
95th
of all 3,788 parks
Among Neighbourhood Park
89th
same primary typology
Expected for similar parks
39
median in medium Neighbourhood Park (n=393)
Performance gap
+12
raw − expected · context confidence high
modest overperformer

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

Loading map…

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Street context. Park polygon highlighted on the citywide map.

Boundary: OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).

Explain this score

Where did the 51 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 Activation20 · p78
-7.5
Connectivity75 · p96
+5.0
Enclosure / Eyes on Park67 · p65
+1.7
Natural Comfort60 · p77
+1.5
Border Vacuum Risk36 (risk)
+1.4
Amenity Diversity46 · p96
-0.8

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

Woolner Park works because its connectivity score (75) is one of the city's strongest and its amenity diversity (46) is also top decile (20 transit stops sit within a 400 m walk; 10 intersections fall within 100 m of the edge).

What limits this park

Woolner Park's edges are fronted by border-vacuum land uses (highways, rail, parking, blank institutional), risk score 36.

Most distinctive characteristic

Most distinctive feature: exceptionally high connectivity (75, top decile).

Jacobs reading

Woolner Park 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 (67) but the surrounding streets are quiet (edge activation 20): frame without animation.

Performance in context

  • A modest overperformer for its neighbourhood park typology (+12 vs the median in medium Neighbourhood Park).

Typology classification

confidence 70%
Neighbourhood Park

Classified as Neighbourhood Park: 1.0 ha, framed by 2 mid-rise vs 0 towers

Edge Activation

25% weightpartial 60%
20.0 / 100

Within 100 m of the park edge: 9 active uses (transit_stop, restaurant, retail) and 5 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

20% weightmeasured 85%
74.9 / 100

Connectivity blends paths, intersections, transit, entrances, and edge density. This park has 7 mapped paths/walkways and 33 sidewalk segments within 50 m; 10 street intersections within 100 m; 20 transit stops within a 400 m walk; 8 estimated access points across ~470 m of perimeter. edge density is healthy, no superblock penalty. Source coverage: centreline, pedestrian_network, transit_osm.

Streets within 25 m7
Intersections within 100 m10
Paths/walkways (50 m)7
Sidewalk segments (50 m)33
Transit stops (400 m)20
Estimated entrances8
Edge connections / 100 m perimeter1.49
Park perimeter470 m

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

Amenity Diversity

20% weightmeasured 75%
46.1 / 100

7 distinct amenity types in the park (basketball, dog_area, fitness, playground, bench, drinking_water, …). 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

15% weightpartial 45%
59.8 / 100

Natural-comfort components for this park: ~33.4% effective canopy (0.0% from contiguous tree polygons + scattered tree density); nearest waterbody ~476 m; 48 city-mapped trees inside the polygon (47.7/ha). Reading: partially shaded. Source coverage: waterbodies, street_trees. Impervious surface is approximated (Toronto's authoritative layer ships only as a raster GeoTIFF).

Canopy coverage0.0%
Canopy area0.00 ha
Inside ravine system0.0%
Water surface inside park0.0%
Nearest water (if outside park)476 m
Estimated green100.0%
City-mapped trees inside polygon48
Tree density47.7 / ha
Cover diversity (Shannon, 0 to 100)0.0
Sample points used68

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

Enclosure / Eyes on Park

10% weightmeasured 80%
66.6 / 100

84 buildings within 25 m of the park edge (2 mid-rise, 82 low-rise, 0 tower); avg edge height 5.2 m (~2 floors); 17.9 buildings per 100 m of 470 m perimeter (strong frontage density); edges are barely there or single-storey; no towers immediately adjacent. "Eyes on the park" come strongest from the 2 mid-rise edge buildings.

Buildings within 25 m84
Buildings within 50 m84
Avg edge height5.2 m (~2 floors)
Tallest edge building25.9 m
Mid-rise (3 to 7 floors)2
Low-rise (< 3 floors)82
Towers (≥ 13 floors)0
Frontage density17.89 per 100 m perimeter
Mid-rise share of edge2%
Tower share of edge0%
Blank-edge share (proxy)0%
Park perimeter470 m

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

Border Vacuum Risk

10% weightpartial 60%
36.0 risk

Border-vacuum factors within 50 m of the park: parking_lot, parking_lot, parking_lot. Jacobs warned that highways, rail, parking lots and blank institutional edges act as "vacuums" that suppress foot traffic and isolate the park from its neighbourhood.

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 (7 types · 13 records)

  • basketball
  • dog area
  • fitness
  • playground
  • bench
  • drinking water
  • picnic

Nearby active-edge features (28)

  • parking lot11 m
  • retail: VN Nails Spare20 m
  • parking lot22 m
  • retail: Express Coin Laundry24 m
  • parking lot27 m
  • restaurant: 241 Pizza28 m
  • retail: Wonderfood32 m
  • retail: Vape Culture by 24x7 Vapes32 m
  • transit stop: Woolner Avenue36 m
  • transit stop: Foxwell St at Jane St59 m
  • parking lot59 m
  • transit stop: Foxwell Street68 m
  • parking lot69 m
  • transit stop: Foxwell St at Jane St72 m
  • parking lot105 m
  • parking lot122 m
  • transit stop: Pritchard Avenue128 m
  • retail: S and A Variety Store128 m
  • transit stop: Pritchard Ave at Jane St134 m
  • transit stop: Pritchard Ave at Jane St145 m
  • parking lot146 m
  • transit stop: Pritchard Avenue146 m
  • parking lot147 m
  • transit stop151 m
  • parking lot165 m
  • parking lot166 m
  • transit stop: Pritchard Ave at Batavia Ave180 m
  • transit stop188 m

Park profile

Five-axis radar across the structural dimensions.

Edge ActivationConnectivityAmenity DiversityNatural ComfortEnclosureWoolner Park
Edge activation, connectivity, amenity diversity, natural comfort, and enclosure, each 0 to 100.

Citywide percentile ranks

Across all Toronto parks in the dataset.

  • Overall vitality
    95th
  • Edge activation
    78th
  • Connectivity
    96th
  • Amenity diversity
    96th
  • Natural comfort
    77th
  • Enclosure
    65th

Most similar parks

Closest in metric space across the five structural dimensions.

Most opposite parks

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

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 Woolner 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.

Rate this park on as many dimensions as you have an opinion about. 1 = not at all, 5 = strongly. Skip the ones you don't feel sure about. Aggregated only, no comments stored at the row level.

feels socially active
feels comfortable
feels safe
feels connected
feels welcoming
feels ecological / natural
feels good for lingering
feels family-friendly
feels culturally important
70%

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

real Toronto data
  • City of Toronto Open Data: Parks (Green Space)
    Polygon boundaries, official names, types. Boundaries are reconciled against OpenStreetMap (ODbL) for new and updated parks.
  • 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.