St. Mary Street Parkette
Urban Plaza, one of the city's strongest overall (score 51, rank ~96th percentile). Strongest: edge activation; weakest: natural comfort.
Aerial, City of Toronto orthophoto, ~8 cm/px source · cached 5/9/2026
St. Mary Street Parkette scores 51.2 / 100. Strongest dimensions: edge activation and enclosure / eyes on park. 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 · 0.01 ha
Weighted across six dimensions · confidence 56%
Scores are not bell-curved. Percentiles and expected scores provide context without changing the underlying model.
Loading map…
The parks map is loading.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
St. Mary Street Parkette works because its edge activation score (77) is one of the city's strongest and its enclosure (73) is also above-average (its perimeter is lined with active uses).
What limits this park
St. Mary Street Parkette is held back by natural comfort (22, bottom quartile): only 0% canopy means little summer shade.
Most distinctive characteristic
Most distinctive feature: exceptionally low natural comfort (22, bottom quartile).
Jacobs reading
St. Mary Street Parkette sits between an urban social park and an ecological retreat: moderately useful for both, exceptionally suited to neither.
Tradeoffs
- Connectivity (56) significantly outpaces natural comfort (22): well placed in the city but offers little shade or ecological respite.
- 19 nearby towers cast wind and shadow without contributing canopy: passive surveillance is plentiful but human-scale comfort is not.
Performance in context
- This park is a strong overperformer for its cohort: raw 51 versus an expected 36 for similar parks (pocket Urban Plaza) (gap +15).
Typology classification
Classified as Urban Plaza: 56 m², paved (0% canopy), 54.0 buildings/100 m
Edge Activation
Within 100 m of the park edge: 35 active uses (retail, restaurant, school, cafe) and 1 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 0 mapped paths/walkways and 10 sidewalk segments within 50 m; 10 street intersections within 100 m; 44 transit stops within a 400 m walk; 0 estimated access points across ~31 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: 0.0% estimated tree canopy; nearest waterbody ~1465 m. Reading: exposed. Source coverage: waterbodies. 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
54 buildings within 25 m of the park edge (19 mid-rise, 16 low-rise, 19 tower); avg edge height 42.9 m (~14 floors); 54.0 buildings per 100 m of 31 m perimeter (strong frontage density); edges dominated by towers; 19 towers ≥ 40 m within 25 m of the edge. "Eyes on the park" come strongest from the 19 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 (80)
- restaurant: Okonomi House32 m
- school: Blyth Academy - Yorkville Campus37 m
- restaurant: Blue Claw Lobster Shack41 m
- restaurant: Exotic Tandoori61 m
- restaurant: GBF Gourmet Burger Co.63 m
- retail: Rabba63 m
- restaurant: Sushi Club66 m
- restaurant: 7 West68 m
- retail70 m
- retail: Outsource Computronic71 m
- retail: Bruno Malfara Hair Studio72 m
- restaurant: Sushi Umi72 m
- retail72 m
- retail74 m
- parking lot75 m
- retail76 m
- retail: The Health Shoppe77 m
- retail: Suzanna Dry Cleaners82 m
- retail: Special Handcare Cleaners83 m
- restaurant: Monga Fried Chicken86 m
- retail: Cheese Bakery88 m
- retail89 m
- retail: Bez Bazaar91 m
- retail: 180 Smoke96 m
- retail: Blue Shark Coffee96 m
- retail: Popeye's Supplements96 m
- retail: Bulk Mine97 m
- restaurant: Kothur Indian Cuisine97 m
- restaurant: Xihe Peking Duck97 m
- cafe: Tim Hortons98 m
- retail: Longhairs98 m
- retail: Dollarama99 m
- retail: The Pet Store99 m
- retail: ASP Security Services99 m
- retail: Photo 1-2-3100 m
- restaurant: Popeyes100 m
- retail: Artist Alley Shop101 m
- restaurant: Pearl Yorkville Chinese Cuisine101 m
- restaurant: Avelo102 m
- transit stop: Charles Street102 m
- restaurant: Shinyi Dumplings102 m
- restaurant: Twilight Cafe103 m
- restaurant: The Diner's Corner104 m
- retail: Haartek Salon105 m
- retail: Anime Alley105 m
- restaurant: Da.si.mar Shawarma107 m
- retail107 m
- restaurant: O Bong107 m
- retail: Game Centre Video Games109 m
- restaurant: Hey I Am Yogost110 m
- transit stop: Charles Street112 m
- retail113 m
- parking lot113 m
- retail: New Wave Travel116 m
- highway: Yonge Street116 m
- parking lot117 m
- retail: Suzanna‘s Clearners117 m
- cafe: Hero Tea117 m
- restaurant: Sushi on bay117 m
- restaurant: Bingz118 m
- retail: Reflex Copy & Digital Printing119 m
- retail119 m
- cafe: Elizabeth Kay119 m
- restaurant: Toro Toro121 m
- retail: Citymarket122 m
- retail: Nail's Attraction124 m
- restaurant: McDonald's124 m
- highway: Yonge Street125 m
- restaurant: Sang-Ji Fried Bao126 m
- restaurant: The Artful Dodger126 m
- restaurant: Miss Fu in ChengDu127 m
- retail: Gadgets Plus128 m
- restaurant: A BBQ House128 m
- parking lot129 m
- retail: Rock Variety129 m
- retail130 m
- restaurant: The Foxes Den131 m
- retail: Uomo Barbershop131 m
- cafe: Zagmachi131 m
- restaurant: Saigon Lotus133 m
Park profile
Five-axis radar across the structural dimensions.
Citywide percentile ranks
Across all Toronto parks in the dataset.
- Overall vitality96th
- Edge activation100th
- Connectivity67th
- Amenity diversity47th
- Natural comfort0th
- Enclosure74th
Most similar parks
Closest in metric space across the five structural dimensions.
- Graham ParkUrban Plaza54
- Courthouse Square ParkCivic Square52
- City Wide Open SpaceRavine / Naturalized Park51
- Pape Avenue CemeteryUrban Plaza50
- Prescott ParketteUrban Plaza48
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
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 St. Mary Street 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.
- 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
- 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.