Binghamton University has a slightly schizophrenic relationship with the neighboring City of Binghamton.

Not only are we actually in Vestal, but we’re separated by a parkway and a river from the City that both loves and hates us.

In the City of Binghamton, Mayor Matt Ryan’s State of the City address this week, he touted the interdependence between the campus and City.

“As we all join together to convince those at the state level that the Binghamton University law school should become a reality in our Downtown, we can see how important town-gown relationships are to our future,” he said to applause.

Certainly, Ryan’s claim of unity between the University and Binghamton residents is one we should embrace as a campus community. If only BU was a college town to be proud of, the University would be a package deal (and with the possibility of a functional rail station for the city, we’re on our way).

With wireless Internet and more small businesses about to be introduced to Downtown Binghamton, it seems that the City is certainly conscious of what it needs to do to attract more of us. The University Downtown Center has made its mark, and now the possibility of another University building has the city salivating.

It’s great to be appreciated, but if the mayor and his administration have any intention of being taken seriously, the two-faced stance on students has to end.

Why should students believe the welcoming embrace from the City when the mayor shows up personally to inspect a house he suspects is breaking a zoning law?

Ryan has said that his qualm is not with students but with the landlord who knowingly rented out the house in the R-1 zone. However, when the mayor shows up at students’ front steps and asks about living arrangements, there’s little room for semantics.

That students should be purposefully barred from living in a specific community contradicts the mayor’s message about the importance of “town-gown” relations.

Proponents of the R-1 zoning laws claim they exist for the sake of safety, citing the age of the houses as unfit for student housing. Binghamton cannot simultaneously hope to attract students for the sake of their economy and evict them from their nicest neighborhoods.

The law in question is clearly hostile to BU students and nearly impossible to enforce. Students who live near Binghamtonians who are sticklers for an arbitrary boundary get reported, regardless of what their living conditions actually are and whether or not they are good neighbors. Recently, some “legitimate” R-1 residents even went so far as to sign a petition asking that more students be evicted from the area.

And while we appreciate gestures such as Ryan’s defense of Bar Crawl last spring, if the City really wants to integrate the University into the community, the false smiles and back-handed welcomes need to stop. Students do not respond well when Binghamton’s gestapo try to kick them out of their homes weeks before they graduate while simultaneously inviting them to parts of the City that are convenient only for the City.