If you read the opinion section of this paper, you’ve seen columns about the effect Binghamton University has on the Binghamton area. Writers have taken both stances on this issue, lauding and condemning BU for what it is or is not doing to stimulate the city’s economy. While these articles are generally insightful and can generate awareness, they ignore possibly the University’s biggest tool in revamping the decrepit Downtown: us.
As students at a school in a declining upstate city, we have a responsibility to do whatever we can to improve the place where we’re spending the greatest years of our lives. We don’t have to stay after graduation or even spend our breaks here. It’s as simple as watching Thursday night football at a local bar instead of a chain like Tully’s or Applebee’s, or taking your parents to a lesser known but no less quality restaurant during Family Weekend. Go get drunk enough to forget you don’t care about minor league hockey and see a Senators game, and then drink more at the “townie” bars that dot non-State streets. Get haircuts at local salons and your car fixed at dingy mechanics. Leave Vestal Parkway and get a cheap dinner somewhere on Main Street. There are local businesses galore that are run by hardworking people who deserve your money as much as the Pep Boys in your local sheltered, suburban town does.
While the primary onus is on us as spoiled Long Island college kids with Doctor Daddy- and Lawyer Mommy-sponsored bank accounts, some of the responsibility does lie with the University. Though there can be productive, two-sided discussion about whether or not BU is investing enough of its money in the city, I don’t think it can be argued that the University is doing its best to get the students to invest their money. There is depressingly little push from the University to get students to go Downtown and spend. Few if any local events are advertised on campus, and there is very little initiative to raise awareness of the city’s history and place in this world.
The city has more to offer than it seems in the bubble that we live in when we’re on campus. As a bumbling, car-less freshman, “Binghamton” was Vestal Parkway, State Street and Thirsty’s Tavern (it was the only memorable landmark between campus and Downtown).
The University is going to do its part in funneling money into the city. It’s going to invest in big research facilities and pull in grant money that will stimulate something. But I don’t think that the owner, bartender or janitor of a 1500 square foot bar is going to see any of that intellectual science money. He is going to see the money of students and faculty who drink his beer and eat his food. I would love to believe that this city has seen its worst days, that it’s hit rock bottom and is climbing back up. I think there is a spark of an initiative to get more money Downtown. If in 20 years the city of Binghamton is once again a bustling hub of academia and nightlife, wouldn’t you want to say you were at the forefront of such a turnaround?