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THE CASINO FIX

PRAXIS PLAN SHOWS THE WAY, BUT IS IT TOO LATE?

THE GOOD NEWS: Of the 84 traffic, zoning, greening and public-access items that would make Foxwoods and SugarHouse casinos compatible with the city's vision for the Delaware waterfront, 80 are fixable.

The bad news: most of them probably won't be fixed.

According to a new report commissioned by Mayor Nutter and released by PennPraxis last week, the majority of items on a "compatability matrix" that would help the casinos conform to the hopes and plans for a vibrant urban waterfront - low-rise buildings, open space, no blank walls on primary streets, and access to the water - are not in the plans, but could be.

The problem is that the casinos will undoubtedly resist fixing them because they won't support the gambling-business model. Especially the areas related to parking, all of which are "not fixable."

As the report makes clear, the proposed massive parking structures to accommodate nearly 9,000 cars between the two sites - the equivalent of the structured parking at the airport- is one of the most devilish details of the casinos' impact on the city and the Delaware. But the casinos aren't likely to move parking off-site and force customers to take a shuttle bus.

The Praxis report - the product of three days of experts convening to address issues of traffic, urban planning, ecology and sustainability - should prove an extremely useful document. For one thing, it's the first exercise in matching proposed projects against the criteria for creating a vibrant waterfront. The report is an enlightening preview of how the city should judge future waterfront projects.

We also expect that the 84 items on the matrix will provide the city with a very useful list of negotiating points when the casinos, the governor and the city sit down later this month to discuss siting. But we doubt that the report will compel the casinos to move to new sites. After all, they were awarded their sites nearly two years ago, and the waterfront vision is less than a year old.

And that brings us to the tough bottom line: The city has ignored rational planning in general and the waterfront in particular until only recently.

The Praxis plan shows us how things can be done the right way. How much influence the right way will have on the old, done-deal way remains to be seen. We just hope that the casinos are willing to compromise to become contributing members of the community. *