Aside from the affectation of progress displayed by Binghamton Mayor Matt Ryan’s mere presence on campus, a Monday night forum between him and the Binghamton University community on city housing explained little (See Page 1).

The city’s Commission on Housing and Home Ownership is scheduled in a month’s time to recommend to Ryan how to best improve home ownership rates in the city. The commission does not have any legislative power, but could advise that a limit to where and in what numbers people can live in certain residential areas city-wide be set, including the West Side — the most popular place to live for off-campus students.

Students are rightfully upset about the prospect of seeing their way of life altered in Binghamton, but very few approached the forum thoughtfully or properly. Most focused their questions on the perceived conflict of interest on behalf of a commission member who works for the development group that is looking to build a new housing complex Downtown — a housing complex that figures to make great profits off of students, and potentially, students who would no longer be living on the West Side.

The lawyer, Ken Kamlet, never should have been on the commission because an appearance of a conflict of interest is disruptive, whether a real conflict exists or not. But at this point, it’s barely relevant.

Other students seemed to be simply posturing for their Student Association executive board runs, with several candidates asking questions, but few showing true understanding of the issue. (We can’t wait for next week’s elections!)

President Matt Landau and the Student Association did well to have Ryan speak — he wasn’t planning to attend at one point— but did not do well controlling a sometimes immature crowd.

Ryan himself was not thoroughly prepared, backtracking on several questions, and deferring to New York state law on others.

Here’s where the focus should have been: Is the sanctity of residential zoning, and on the West Side in particular, really the city’s most pressing issue? And are students essentially second-class citizens in the city’s eyes?

In a town where students and locals already feel discontent with one another, why strain the matter even more when zoning, ultimately, will not be what saves the city? The mayor and the commission are kidding themselves if they think relocating people (and those people will be mostly students) is what will make Binghamton more attractive. All that action will do is upset the student body.

More jobs are needed. A city that is safe in all neighborhoods, not just one or two, like the West and South Sides, will draw people. Priorities, in this situation, are off. But the West Side is arguably the best selling point the city has, and students on the West Side are secondary.

Follow along: Homeowners bring more in the long run than college students. Students are transient and, through the money-tinted spectacle the city looks through, simply not as valuable as young John and Jane who want to settle down in Binghamton and start a business.

And with BU such a bargain in these penny-pinching days, the city knows that upsetting students’ housing situations won’t exactly scare away the masses. So the city envisions the West Side becoming some ritzy area.

Students, perhaps, should never have entered the West Side in the numbers they did in the first place — landlords, a long time ago, started converting homes into student housing when they shouldn’t have, and only now is the matter being corrected.

So, if we as students are not as important as residents to the city as permanent homeowners, here’s the best we can ask for: If zoning changes are made, do not force any student to move out of an affected home until they finish their college career. And homes that are only suitable for large groups should still be rented, assuming they are kept up — a vacant home is no more helpful to property prices than an inhabited shanty.

If you feel, however, that the city should look at all residents as equals, renter or homeowner, and that the city should reconsider whether it’s best to institute change that would upset its lifeblood, the students, when so much else can be done, then speak up. Effective policing and code enforcement could still be the least tenuous solution.

But let’s be clear this time: Speaking up doesn’t mean simply showing up to a town hall forum and asking uninformed questions. It means true comprehension of the matter and real action in the form of petitions, phone calls and letters to local politicians.