We asked in November what may change with Republicans in charge of city government.

The idea of change will get its first test in the coming months.

The idea of rental registration and inspection that was discussed earlier this week by City Council members isn’t necessarily new. Rental registration has actually been on the books for several years in Jamestown, but there are few teeth in the current ordinance when it comes to enforcement or penalties. And the idea of increased code enforcement on some of these properties was quickly watered down after heavy opposition from city landlords.

In the end little changed with some of the worst housing in Jamestown because there wasn’t a political will to improve low-end housing in the city.

There were some pointed questions asked Monday. The questions are likely to get more pointed from now until a vote is scheduled. Will council members and Mayor Kim Ecklund stick to their guns? We have a feeling they will.

Current council members have been given some political cover by New York state, which is considering changing regulations to require rental inspections. We would prefer the state pass legislation rather than the opaque process of getting what it wants through regulations the public doesn’t see until they actually happen, but Jamestown officials will have little choice but to comply with the state’s inspection ordinance once it takes effect.

There is only one problem with the idea of rental inspection as we see it – the onus is placed largely on one side of the problem. Some landlords don’t invest in their properties, resulting in homes that no one should be living in but which are used because there are no other options.

But the state’s regulations and the city’s policy only deal with landlords. They don’t deal with tenants who destroy properties and cost landlords thousands of dollars in cleaning and repair costs before they can rent their properties again. And while eviction is largely outside of the city’s purview, the state’s eviction laws hurt small landlords who sometimes have to go a year with no rent payments while they navigate the eviction process when someone chooses not to pay rent.

Poor housing isn’t a one-way street. Yes, there are bad landlords – particularly LLCs headquartered out of the area that collect rent money but don’t invest a dime of it back into the homes it owns. But there are equally bad tenants – and in our opinion they get off scot-free whenever we talk about rental inspection laws.

Something has to change in how Jamestown handles its neighborhoods. Rental inspection and certificates of occupancy may be a useful tool by setting a baseline of what should be considered habitable housing. But if that housing isn’t kept habitable, who should be held responsible?

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