Robertson Parkette
Urban Plaza, above average overall (score 42, rank ~82th percentile). Strongest: connectivity; weakest: natural comfort.
Photo by Jesse Ira de Leon via Google Places · cached 5/9/2026
Robertson Parkette scores 41.8 / 100. Strongest dimensions: enclosure / eyes on park and connectivity. Weakest: amenity diversity (0). Border-vacuum risk is elevated (72). This score is a transparent reading of Jane Jacobs-style vitality factors, not a definitive judgment.
Area · 0.27 ha
Weighted across six dimensions · confidence 57%
Scores are not bell-curved. Percentiles and expected scores provide context without changing the underlying model.
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Explain this score
Where did the 42 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
Robertson Parkette works because its connectivity score (77) is one of the city's strongest and its edge activation (39) is also top decile (21 transit stops sit within a 400 m walk; 17 intersections fall within 100 m of the edge).
What limits this park
Robertson Parkette is held back by natural comfort (37, below-average): only 0% canopy means little summer shade; border-vacuum risk is also elevated (72).
Most distinctive characteristic
Most distinctive feature: exceptionally high connectivity (77, top decile).
Jacobs reading
Robertson Parkette sits between an urban social park and an ecological retreat: moderately useful for both, exceptionally suited to neither.
Tradeoffs
- Connectivity (77) significantly outpaces natural comfort (37): well placed in the city but offers little shade or ecological respite.
- High connectivity coexists with high border-vacuum risk (72): much of that connectivity is to highways, rail, or parking lots, not to neighbourhoods.
Typology classification
Classified as Urban Plaza: 2713 m², paved (0% canopy), 34.3 buildings/100 m
Edge Activation
Within 100 m of the park edge: 22 active uses (restaurant, cafe, transit_stop, retail) and 5 dead/hostile uses (parking_lot, highway). 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 14 mapped paths/walkways and 23 sidewalk segments within 50 m; 17 street intersections within 100 m; 21 transit stops within a 400 m walk; 4 estimated access points across ~213 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: ~3.5% effective canopy (0.0% from contiguous tree polygons + scattered tree density); nearest waterbody ~689 m; 5 city-mapped trees inside the polygon (5.0/ha). Reading: exposed. Source coverage: 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
73 buildings within 25 m of the park edge (10 mid-rise, 63 low-rise, 0 tower); avg edge height 7.0 m (~2 floors); 34.3 buildings per 100 m of 213 m perimeter (strong frontage density); edges are low-rise (mostly 2 to 3 floors); no towers immediately adjacent. "Eyes on the park" come strongest from the 10 mid-rise edge buildings.
Source: Toronto 3D Massing (building footprints + heights)
Border Vacuum Risk
Border-vacuum factors within 50 m of the park: Danforth/Rhodes, Danforth Avenue, Danforth Avenue. 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
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 (58)
- parking lot: Danforth/Rhodes0 m
- retail: HearingLife9 m
- transit stop: Coxwell Avenue13 m
- highway: Danforth Avenue14 m
- restaurant: CC’s bar & grill30 m
- restaurant: Subway31 m
- retail: macFab31 m
- retail: Daily Goods31 m
- transit stop: Danforth Avenue31 m
- retail: DeSerres31 m
- retail: Queen Travel31 m
- restaurant: Pizzaiolo32 m
- transit stop: Danforth Avenue35 m
- restaurant: Yanagi Sushi37 m
- cafe: Mofer Coffee37 m
- transit stop: Coxwell Avenue41 m
- retail: Anderson's Bicycle Company42 m
- retail: Royalty Cleaners43 m
- highway: Danforth Avenue46 m
- restaurant: Pomarosa68 m
- restaurant: TKO The Sports Bar69 m
- retail: Cannabis Hut70 m
- highway: Danforth Avenue76 m
- highway: Danforth Avenue76 m
- restaurant: Sunset Grill77 m
- retail81 m
- restaurant: A&W82 m
- highway: Danforth Avenue102 m
- parking lot: Danforth105 m
- transit stop: Coxwell Station110 m
- transit stop: Coxwell Station112 m
- highway: Danforth Avenue119 m
- transit stop: Coxwell Station120 m
- transit stop: Coxwell Station126 m
- retail132 m
- transit stop: Strathmore Boulevard132 m
- parking lot134 m
- transit stop: Coxwell134 m
- parking lot134 m
- cafe: Tim Hortons136 m
- restaurant: Aviator138 m
- transit stop: Coxwell139 m
- retail: Dan21144 m
- restaurant: La Vegan149 m
- parking lot: Danforth Mosaic150 m
- restaurant: El Sol156 m
- highway: Danforth Avenue157 m
- parking lot158 m
- retail174 m
- retail: Good Intentions179 m
- retail: Holrds Convenience183 m
- cafe: Abol Espresso Bar185 m
- transit stop186 m
- transit stop186 m
- parking lot189 m
- restaurant: Mom's Basement191 m
- highway: Danforth Avenue196 m
- retail: Pâtisserie La Cigogne197 m
Park profile
Five-axis radar across the structural dimensions.
Citywide percentile ranks
Across all Toronto parks in the dataset.
- Overall vitality82th
- Edge activation91th
- Connectivity97th
- Amenity diversity67th
- Natural comfort31th
- Enclosure88th
Most similar parks
Closest in metric space across the five structural dimensions.
- George Hislop ParkUrban Plaza46
- Shaw St Traffic Median NorthCorridor / Linear Park48
- Bristol Avenue Parkette EastUrban Plaza47
- Yonge Boulevard ParketteUrban Plaza41
- Cathedral Church Of St. JamesParkette47
Most opposite parks
Furthest in metric space. Useful for recognising what kind of park this isn’t.
- Trca Lands ( 26)Ravine / Naturalized Park27
- Toronto Islands - Muggs Island ParkRavine / Naturalized Park25
- Rouge ParkRavine / Naturalized Park28
- Rouge ParkRavine / Naturalized Park26
- Rouge ParkWaterfront Park25
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.
p58 citywide · p52 within Urban Plaza
Source: Google Places API · match high (0.97 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 Robertson 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.
- Increase canopy and reduce paved area. Shade and water features extend usable hours and seasons.
- 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.