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

Woolner Park

Parkette, one of the city's strongest overall (score 51, rank ~96th percentile). Strongest: amenity diversity; weakest: enclosure.

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

Woolner Park scores 50.6 / 100. Strongest dimensions: connectivity and enclosure / eyes on park. Weakest: edge activation (22.5). Border-vacuum risk is low. This score is a transparent reading of Jane Jacobs-style vitality factors, not a definitive judgment.

Best fora quiet siteveryday neighbourhood use

Area · 0.97 ha

Vitality Score
51/100

Weighted across six dimensions · confidence 68%

Data Confidence
50.6 / 100
Citywide
96th
of all 3,273 parks
Among Parkette
98th
same primary typology
Expected for similar parks
36
median in small Parkette (n=218)
Performance gap
+15
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.

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 Activation23 · p79
-6.9
Connectivity75 · p95
+4.9
Amenity Diversity33 · p96
-3.3
Border Vacuum Risk24 (risk)
+2.6
Enclosure / Eyes on Park70 · p68
+2.0
Natural Comfort59 · p73
+1.3

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 amenity diversity score (33) is one of the city's strongest and its connectivity (75) is also top decile.

What limits this park

.

Most distinctive characteristic

Most distinctive feature: exceptionally high amenity diversity (33, 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 (70) but the surrounding streets are quiet (edge activation 23): frame without animation.

Performance in context

  • This park is a strong overperformer for its cohort: raw 51 versus an expected 36 for similar parks (small Parkette) (gap +15).

Typology classification

confidence 70%
Parkette

Classified as Parkette: small (9712 m²) with strong building frontage (19.8 per 100 m)

Edge Activation

25% weightpartial 60%
22.5 / 100

Within 100 m of the park edge: 10 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%
74.7 / 100

Connectivity blends paths, intersections, transit, entrances, and edge density. This park has 7 mapped paths/walkways and 36 sidewalk segments within 50 m; 9 street intersections within 100 m; 19 transit stops within a 400 m walk; 7 estimated access points across ~404 m of perimeter. edge density is healthy, no superblock penalty. Source coverage: centreline, pedestrian_network, transit_osm.

Streets within 25 m7
Intersections within 100 m9
Paths/walkways (50 m)7
Sidewalk segments (50 m)36
Transit stops (400 m)19
Estimated entrances7
Edge connections / 100 m perimeter1.73
Park perimeter404 m

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

Amenity Diversity

20% weightmeasured 75%
33.4 / 100

4 distinct amenity types in the park (basketball, dog_area, fitness, playground). 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%
58.5 / 100

Natural-comfort components for this park: ~30.8% effective canopy (0.0% from contiguous tree polygons + scattered tree density); nearest waterbody ~483 m; 44 city-mapped trees inside the polygon (44.0/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)483 m
Estimated green100.0%
City-mapped trees inside polygon44
Tree density44.0 / ha
Cover diversity (Shannon, 0 to 100)0.0
Sample points used67

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

Enclosure / Eyes on Park

10% weightmeasured 80%
69.7 / 100

80 buildings within 25 m of the park edge (3 mid-rise, 77 low-rise, 0 tower); avg edge height 5.5 m (~2 floors); 19.8 buildings per 100 m of 404 m perimeter (strong frontage density); edges are barely there or single-storey; no towers immediately adjacent. "Eyes on the park" come strongest from the 3 mid-rise edge buildings.

Buildings within 25 m80
Buildings within 50 m80
Avg edge height5.5 m (~2 floors)
Tallest edge building25.9 m
Mid-rise (3 to 7 floors)3
Low-rise (< 3 floors)77
Towers (≥ 13 floors)0
Frontage density19.81 per 100 m perimeter
Mid-rise share of edge4%
Tower share of edge0%
Blank-edge share (proxy)0%
Park perimeter404 m

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

Border Vacuum Risk

10% weightpartial 60%
24.0 risk

Border-vacuum factors within 50 m of the park: 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 (4 types · 4 records)

  • basketball
  • dog area
  • fitness
  • playground

Nearby active-edge features (29)

  • parking lot0 m
  • retail: VN Nails Spare3 m
  • retail: Express Coin Laundry6 m
  • restaurant: 241 Pizza10 m
  • retail: Wonderfood13 m
  • retail: Vape Culture by 24x7 Vapes15 m
  • transit stop: Woolner Avenue19 m
  • parking lot21 m
  • retail: Diaper & Gift Outlet36 m
  • transit stop: Foxwell St at Jane St47 m
  • transit stop: Foxwell Street53 m
  • transit stop: Foxwell St at Jane St59 m
  • parking lot65 m
  • parking lot69 m
  • parking lot79 m
  • parking lot106 m
  • transit stop: Pritchard Avenue127 m
  • retail: S and A Variety Store127 m
  • parking lot128 m
  • transit stop: Pritchard Ave at Jane St133 m
  • restaurant144 m
  • transit stop: Pritchard Ave at Jane St144 m
  • transit stop: Pritchard Avenue145 m
  • parking lot146 m
  • parking lot165 m
  • parking lot165 m
  • transit stop170 m
  • parking lot184 m
  • transit stop185 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
    96th
  • Edge activation
    79th
  • Connectivity
    95th
  • Amenity diversity
    96th
  • Natural comfort
    73th
  • Enclosure
    68th

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.

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.