Local landlords have, on occasion, displayed standard levels of decency toward Binghamton University students.

A house fire on Seminary Avenue in late March, over spring break, took the home of five Binghamton University students. No one was injured, but the students were displaced and most of their belongings were destroyed.

Charities chipped in, organizations reached out and, would you believe it, the otherwise disreputable local landlords found the students a home to finish out the semester.

A semester later, normalcy has returned. The city of Binghamton is set to shut off water at some BU students’ off-campus homes if their landlords, part of a group of delinquent property owners that collectively owe the city nearly $1 million, don’t pay up in less than two weeks (see Page 1).

And we’re sure that along with the water, the landlords will soon have their cell phones turned off to avoid students’ angry calls.

This is why BU students toss around the phrase “slum lord” so freely. We know landlords have the money for the water bills — it’s not like they spend anything on maintenance.

Most important now is for landlords to keep the water flowing for their rent-paying residents. But we can’t understand the logic behind letting their bills climb to, for some, tens of thousands. It’s the same sweep-it-under-the-rug ineptitude the University administration applied to Off Campus College Transport’s woes for three years.

To think, just last week landlords were complaining that a new apartment complex Downtown might hurt their business. Sure, the rent will be twice as much as some West Side shanty, but think of all the baths you can take.

The city, too, has taken a major misstep. Spokesman Andrew Block said it doesn’t care who pays the city, as long as someone does — the need for water amongst non-derelict students and others be damned. It’s Mayor Matthew T. Ryan’s best mafioso impression, and it’s a cowardly tug on the purse strings that will only serve to victimize tenants and clog the courts.

The city and area landlords are too dependent upon the BU community for them to regard something as essential as water supply so callously. It shouldn’t take a house fire to inspire reason.