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Toronto Parks Atlas
Mcnicoll Park, site photograph
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Athletic / Recreation Parkcluster ·Walkable Mid-Rise Neighbourhood Parks (enclosure-leaning)Hillcrest Village (48)confidence moderate

Mcnicoll Park

Athletic / Recreation Park, one of the city's strongest overall (score 54, rank ~98th percentile). Strongest: amenity diversity; weakest: enclosure.

Photo by Jimmy Sun via Google Places · cached 5/9/2026

Mcnicoll Park scores 53.8 / 100. Strongest dimensions: connectivity and enclosure / eyes on park. Weakest: amenity diversity (28.4). Border-vacuum risk is low. This score is a transparent reading of Jane Jacobs-style vitality factors, not a definitive judgment.

Best fororganised sportactive recreation

Area · 2.83 ha

Vitality Score
54/100

Weighted across six dimensions · confidence 72%

Data Confidence
53.8 / 100
Citywide
98th
of all 3,273 parks
Among Athletic / Recreation Park
94th
same primary typology
Expected for similar parks
42
median in medium Athletic / Recreation Park (n=68)
Performance gap
+12
raw − expected · context confidence high
strong overperformer

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

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Street context. Park polygon highlighted on the citywide map. Connectivity, transit, and edge conditions read at a glance.
Mcnicoll Park, aerial top-down view
Top-down view.City of Toronto orthophoto, ~8 cm/px. Reads the park’s footprint, paths, treed area, and edge conditions from above. City of Toronto Orthophoto · cot_ortho most-current MapServer · cached 5/9/2026.

Explain this score

Where did the 54 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
Border Vacuum Risk0 (risk)
+5.0
Connectivity72 · p93
+4.5
Amenity Diversity28 · p95
-4.3
Natural Comfort44 · p46
-0.9
Edge Activation47 · p95
-0.9
Enclosure / Eyes on Park54 · p19
+0.4

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

Mcnicoll Park works because its amenity diversity score (28) is one of the city's strongest and its edge activation (47) is also top decile.

What limits this park

Mcnicoll Park is held back by enclosure (54, bottom quartile): no mid-rise frontage to provide eyes on the park.

Most distinctive characteristic

Most distinctive feature: exceptionally high amenity diversity (28, top decile).

Jacobs reading

Mcnicoll Park sits between an urban social park and an ecological retreat: moderately useful for both, exceptionally suited to neither.

Tradeoffs

  • Connectivity (72) significantly outpaces natural comfort (44): well placed in the city but offers little shade or ecological respite.

Performance in context

  • This park is a strong overperformer for its cohort: raw 54 versus an expected 42 for similar parks (medium Athletic / Recreation Park) (gap +12).

Typology classification

confidence 75%
Athletic / Recreation Parkalso reads as Neighbourhood Park

Classified as Athletic / Recreation Park: 67% of amenity types are athletic (basketball, tennis). Secondary read: Neighbourhood Park (2.8 ha, framed by 0 mid-rise vs 0 towers).

Edge Activation

25% weightpartial 60%
46.5 / 100

Within 100 m of the park edge: 10 active uses (transit_stop) and 2 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%
72.4 / 100

Connectivity blends paths, intersections, transit, entrances, and edge density. This park has 7 mapped paths/walkways and 27 sidewalk segments within 50 m; 10 street intersections within 100 m; 24 transit stops within a 400 m walk; 7 estimated access points across ~703 m of perimeter. edge density is healthy, no superblock penalty. Source coverage: centreline, pedestrian_network, transit_osm.

Streets within 25 m9
Intersections within 100 m10
Paths/walkways (50 m)7
Sidewalk segments (50 m)27
Transit stops (400 m)24
Estimated entrances7
Edge connections / 100 m perimeter1.28
Park perimeter703 m

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

Amenity Diversity

20% weightmeasured 75%
28.4 / 100

3 distinct amenity types in the park (basketball, playground, tennis). 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% weightmeasured 75%
43.9 / 100

Natural-comfort components for this park: 5.5% estimated tree canopy; nearest waterbody ~369 m; 7 city-mapped trees inside the polygon (2.5/ha). Reading: exposed. Source coverage: treed_area, waterbodies, street_trees. Impervious surface is approximated (Toronto's authoritative layer ships only as a raster GeoTIFF).

Canopy coverage5.5%
Canopy area0.16 ha
Inside ravine system0.0%
Water surface inside park0.0%
Nearest water (if outside park)369 m
Estimated green100.0%
City-mapped trees inside polygon7
Tree density2.5 / ha
Cover diversity (Shannon, 0 to 100)30.8
Sample points used199

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

Enclosure / Eyes on Park

10% weightmeasured 80%
54.3 / 100

29 buildings within 25 m of the park edge (0 mid-rise, 29 low-rise, 0 tower); avg edge height 5.1 m (~2 floors); 4.1 buildings per 100 m of 703 m perimeter (strong frontage density); edges are barely there or single-storey; no towers immediately adjacent. "Eyes on the park" come strongest from the 0 mid-rise edge buildings.

Buildings within 25 m29
Buildings within 50 m29
Avg edge height5.1 m (~2 floors)
Tallest edge building7.9 m
Mid-rise (3 to 7 floors)0
Low-rise (< 3 floors)29
Towers (≥ 13 floors)0
Frontage density4.12 per 100 m perimeter
Mid-rise share of edge0%
Tower share of edge0%
Blank-edge share (proxy)0%
Park perimeter703 m

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

Border Vacuum Risk

10% weightpartial 60%
0.0 risk

Park edges face the city. No significant border vacuum detected.

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 (3 types · 4 records)

  • basketball
  • playground
  • tennis

Nearby active-edge features (17)

  • transit stop: Don Mills Road at McNicoll Avenue2 m
  • transit stop: Don Mills Road at McNicoll Avenue3 m
  • transit stop: Don Mills Road at Bedle Avenue16 m
  • transit stop: McNicoll Avenue at Don Mills Road23 m
  • transit stop: Don Mills Road at Bedle Avenue26 m
  • transit stop: Don Mills Road at Bedle Avenue30 m
  • transit stop: McNicoll Avenue at Don Mills Road43 m
  • transit stop: Don Mills Road at McNicoll Avenue48 m
  • transit stop: Don Mills Road at McNicoll Avenue52 m
  • transit stop: McNicoll Ave at Mogul Dr52 m
  • parking lot54 m
  • parking lot94 m
  • transit stop: Don Mills Road / Premier Davis Boulevard132 m
  • transit stop: McNicoll Ave at Mogul Dr133 m
  • transit stop: Don Mills Road / Premier Davis Boulevard137 m
  • transit stop: Don Mills Road at Premier Davis Boulevard154 m
  • transit stop: Don Mills Road at Premier Davis Boulevard157 m

Park profile

Five-axis radar across the structural dimensions.

Edge ActivationConnectivityAmenity DiversityNatural ComfortEnclosureMcnicoll 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
    98th
  • Edge activation
    95th
  • Connectivity
    93th
  • Amenity diversity
    95th
  • Natural comfort
    46th
  • Enclosure
    19th

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.

Visitor signals

Public attention measured by Google Places aggregates. This proxies attention, not occupancy. Aggregate-only: no usernames, no review text, no extra photos beyond the cached hero.

Visitor signal score53 / 100
53.0 / 100

p72 citywide · p69 within Athletic / Recreation Park

Volume (saturated)33
Density / ha47
Rating contribution85
Match dampener×1.00
Average rating
★ 4.4
out of 5
Ratings collected
251
total reviews
Photos uploaded
10
total contributors

Source: Google Places API · match unverified (0.00 composite confidence) · last refreshed 5/9/2026. Privacy contract. Measures public attention, not occupancy.

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 Mcnicoll 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.
  • Increase canopy and reduce paved area. Shade and water features extend usable hours and seasons.

Data sources

real Toronto data
  • City of Toronto Open Data: Parks (Green Space)
    Polygon boundaries, official names, types.
  • 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.