Just how well can one of Pennsylvania's largest gambling halls share the North Side with family-oriented educational, recreational and cultural institutions, historic residential streets and social service agencies healing addictions and other problems?

One week of operation by the Rivers Casino is no long-term indication, but early assessments by community leaders have largely been positive.

Whether by visiting the riverfront casino, talking to its top officials or assessing it from blocks away, many who live or work on the North Side voiced optimism last week that its pros outweigh its cons.

Its immediate neighbor, the Carnegie Science Center, felt no reluctance in advertising a new Saturday Parents' Night Out program, starting Sept. 12, in which parents can drop their children for a fee while they "try their luck at the newly opened Rivers Casino."

The center's news release noted parents may opt to attend a Downtown musical, dine on Mount Washington or otherwise occupy themselves while the kids see a laser show or explore exhibits. But if the convenience of gambling next door is more appealing, that's fine.

"While their audience is different from ours, we're happy to coexist with them," said Ann Metzger, co-director. "We're very happy with what they've done with the riverfront."

The casino's biggest public relations hiccup was an outcry from riverfront trail bicyclists over its opening-weekend signs advising them to dismount and walk their bikes through the "private property." City officials quickly informed the casino that the path was designated for public access, and the facility installed replacement signs simply urging caution around pedestrians.

If that is the biggest public fiasco casino officials encounter, they will be relieved. Development of two proposed Philadelphia casinos has been slowed by community opposition, but negativity has been more muted here.

"We're looking to be a good neighbor to everyone," said George Matta, casino director of business development and community relations.

Mark Fatla, executive director of the Northside Leadership Conference, an umbrella neighborhood group, noted the casino's agreement with the community calls for it to provide $1.5 million over three years for North Side housing development and an equal amount for business district assistance. The first payments are due 10 months from now.

The conference also had a role in funneling job applicants to the casino. From among hundreds of prospects it sent from the North Side and other areas identified as economically distressed, Mr. Matta said at least 150 have been hired for the work force of more than 1,000.

The city and the casino are also to partner in a traffic study after six months, reviewing the impact from thousands of new North Shore visitors drawn by the 3,000 slot machines. The combination of casino traffic with Thursday's Steelers game at Heinz Field did not appear to create problems any different from past years, Mr. Fatla said.

Located between Reedsdale Street and the Ohio River, on property mostly vacant for years other than a large parking lot, the casino is separated from the residences of nearby Manchester and Allegheny West by Route 65 and other roads. That highway system helps minimize its direct impact.

Parking lots and warehouses remain its primary neighbors, along with the construction crews developing the new subway terminus between the casino and Heinz Field. In a few office buildings near the West End Bridge, an area lacking much vehicular or foot traffic, workers expressed pleasure that the casino brought new restaurant options to them.

"It's an improvement for the area," said Doug Matthis, a counter salesman for Cardello Electric Supply, a non-gambler from Mt. Lebanon who plans to visit soon. "It's like having a museum or Phipps Conservatory nearby. You have to go see it so you know what people are talking about."

Many in the vicinity credit the casino for attractive landscaping, and there's ample praise -- though not universal -- for the design of the casino itself. While the nine-story garage draws no raves, a common comment is that at least its appearance is not as bad as people feared.

Tom Sokolowski, director of the Andy Warhol Museum, is less enamored than others with the casino's aesthetics -- "the garage looks like a penitentiary" -- but sees it as a useful development overall.

"We could look at the casino as a den of iniquity, but then so is every bar and saloon and nightclub in town," he said. "It adds to the diversity of things. ... Tourists coming here might want something culturally stimulating, some sports, some places to eat and drink and stay, and they might want to gamble a bit. I don't see that addition to the mix as being a bad one."

John Graf, owner of The Priory, a North Side hotel, is already fielding calls from out of towners interested in lodging near the casino. He heads the North Side Cultural Collaborative, a group of neighborhood institutions, which plans to discuss with casino officials how the facility might make its slot players aware of other North Side entertainment opportunities.

The North Side is notable for its number of social service agencies as well as cultural institutions, and more worries lie among those. Multiple homeless shelters service the area, and the concern is they will see new clients resulting from gambling addiction, said David Bugher, executive director of Light of Life Rescue Mission.

"I don't expect we're going to see a problem this year, but it's going to happen," said Mr. Bugher. "It's going to break up a lot of homes. The sad thing is that before that person who loses everything gets to us, there's going to be enormous pain in his or her household."

He has less fear that the people already using Light of Life's shelter and recovery services will be drawn to the casino, about a mile away, as they lack resources to spend there.

Most North Siders evidently see the Rivers Casino as just one more interesting diversion in the neighborhood, such as Ed and Rose Russ, a Manchester couple in their 70s.

Entering the casino, they said the slots parlor was too far a walk for them from home, but easily accessible by bus. They saw a glittering gambling hall as a boost for both the North Side and their own lives, but they weren't ready to say how often they'd be there.

"It all depends on how we do," Mrs. Russ said with a smile before walking into the parade of lights and bells inside.