A fire which reduced the home of five BU students to a frail skeletal structure of ash and wood has also resurrected the issue of off-campus student housing, casting landlords and students in an unflattering light and calling into question the welcoming arms that the City so often likes to show off.

Proponents of the R-1 zoning laws will no doubt use last week’s fire as evidence that student housing and West Side homes don’t mix because the infrastructure isn’t suitable for the complications of student life. But according to the Binghamton fire marshal, the fault doesn’t lie with the occupants of the house or their electronics. And the house on Seminary Avenue doesn’t even lie within the R-1 zone, anyway.

The same could have happened in a house occupied by University faculty or other area residents — only that the fire spread because neither the students nor their neighbors (also students) were away on vacation last week.

Landlords who keep up their property and students who value truly being a part of the community know that the partnership benefits the City. When students turn to University Plaza or other corporately-owned housing complexes like “The Grove,” their rent (which is almost always more than locally owned off-campus housing) goes directly out of the Southern Tier.

Living off campus means breaking out of the campus bubble and into the community. From groceries to microbrews to our rent, we support Binghamton-owned businesses, and it’s time that the University and the City get their act together about finding a solution.

The fact that all of the neighbors of 15 Seminary Ave. were away last week shows just how critical student housing is to the area. Those homes would undoubtedly be empty without us, and it’s high time that the City recognize how much we’re needed and what could happen when corporate housing replaces West Side lodging.