The common refrain heard from members of the city of Binghamton’s Commission on Housing and Home Ownership earlier this month was, “We’re not here to get rid of students.”
The commission, which is charged with bettering Binghamton’s neighborhoods and is due to make a recommendation to the mayor’s office and city legislature in December, seems poised to favor legislation that would prevent houses on Binghamton’s West Side from being rented to large groups of people.
If it does so, it will have lied to every Binghamton University student.
The students, above all others, would be the ones most affected by any changes to the city’s zoning laws. It doesn’t matter how the commission sugar coats its stated intent or how broadly it ultimately words its recommendation — the effect would be tantamount to banishment.
Sure, students could still live on the West Side, with fewer people to a house, costing each one more money. Or, better yet, they can move to a new Downtown apartment complex when it’s finished in 2010 and pay at least twice as much for a room as they would on the West Side. It’s another way to reach into our pockets.
And what if the laws were changed? What happens to the houses designed for eight people and the landlords who own them?
The city, rightfully, believes it needs home ownership to rise for it to be able to pull itself out of its economic drudge. But it’s not disruptive students that are keeping homeowners away. The city has much larger problems. It’s the students that are keeping the town afloat. As Mayor Matt Ryan put it, Binghamton would be “a ghost town” if it weren’t for BU.
The commission members must be able to see all this. Of course, the commission conspicuously lacks a permanent student representative.
Students can be rowdy, and landlords can rent them homes illegally, as neighbors alleged was the case this spring at 8 Lincoln Ave. It’s that unfortunate incident that sparked much of this controversy.
The best resolution, as some have proposed, is stricter code enforcement and better policing. If students are disruptive, they should be punished as the law stands now. If a landlord illegally rents out a home, he or she should be quickly processed through the legal system.
Most of the time, students are model neighbors anyway. And at all times, they are as inexorably a part of the West Side’s fabric as its other residents. Come December, the commission needs to give us our fair shake.