The New York Times, the Richard Blackwell of New York dailies, has once again cast doting eyes on Ithaca. According to a November 13 article, the city possesses an “eclectic spirit,” exhibits “palpable energy,” and “has embraced the influence of its colleges to create a liberal, cultural and gastronomic oasis...” And the streets are paved with smiles and gum drops rain from the sky.

As I sat in my overpriced Collegetown hovel reading about Ithaca’s “Greek Revivals” and “Federal-style” farmhouses, I was riled by the utopian euphoria. Ithaca may be a lovely place for retirees, families, and people who use “summer” as a verb, but much as I enjoy the quirk, the food, and the vistas, I’ve hardly felt “embraced” by this city.

Nor, I imagine, have most students who have ever lived in the seedy underbelly that is Collegetown. Judging from the film of dirt coating my apartment at the start of the lease and the vagina-shaped chocolate lollipop in the fridge, our landlord didn’t use the previous tenants’ security deposit deductions for cleaning service. I lived out of a hamper for a month while wrangling with the property managers for the dresser that was included in my lease agreement. We spent the next month trying to have our heat repaired, an amenity that is included in our rental fee. My calls and messages to the property managers were either never returned, or met with vagaries like “hopefully it will be fixed soon,” or “it will be fixed before winter sets in.” Which must have meant “winter” in the technical sense (Dec. 21), since we were already in the midst of snowfall and 30 degree temperatures.

After another week of total inaction, I complained to the Building Department. The next week, maintenance was back and ruder than ever, leaving me furious and my housemate with muddy footprints on her bedspread. Over the course of our tenancy, the few times the maintenance department has responded to our requests, they have used their key to enter our apartment in the mornings, at random, while we are in various states of dressing, sleeping, eating, and primping. It has occurred to me that an apartment of 30 year old men would be treated much differently.

These are only a sampling of the problems we have had, and our landlord battles have required hours worth of phone calls, letters, and overall mental labor. Our housing troubles are not unique, which makes the city’s neglect of its Rental Housing Advisory Commission all the more deplorable.

According to The Sun, the commission — which the City of Ithaca website claims meets the third Wednesday of every month — has not met in over a year. The commission is, or was, responsible for recommending ways to improve “accessibility, affordability, and quality of rental housing,” as well as resolving problems between tenants and landlords, and creating programs to educate prospective tenants on rental housing. Sounds useful. But useful things rarely survive bureaucracies, and the same has held true for the RHAC.

This is a shame. As it is, Ithaca boasts an abundance of corrupt property agencies based in greed, and fueled by ageism and sexism. A “liberal oasis” indeed.

Cornell students are dogged by rich-brat stereotypes, but swindling a wealthy student — be it through security deposit deductions for phantom repairs, or overcharging for sub-par accommodations — is as unjust as swindling a poor one. And beyond the Coach and Range Rover set, there are many more Cornellians from middle and lower income families who, by need or by choice, pay their own rent, foot their own bills, and contribute to their own tuition with the money they earn in restaurants, retail stores, coffee shops, bars, on-campus jobs, and programs like ROTC and Cornell Tradition. The rate at which these students are taken advantage of is appalling.

I second The Sun’s call to reactivate the RHAC, and implore the Common Council to make Collegetown housing reform a priority. In the meantime, I will continue to write my landlord strongly worded letters in the pseudo-lawyer style I cobbled together from my internship at the Queens County D.A.’s office.

If my landlord is reading, take note. It would behoove you to acquiesce to my requests. I’ve got plenty of complaint left in me.

Carolyn Byrne is a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences. She can be reached at cbyrne@cornellsun.com. Byrne It Down appears alternate Tuesdays.