Let's be honest — East Lansing and MSU had some ups and downs in 2005.

There was the disturbance/riot/student behavior problem/police-using-too-much-force "incident" in April.

There was a City Council election and elections for student representatives that no students showed up for.

But it's 2006. East Lansing and MSU have a chance to make some New Year's resolutions.

We thought we'd make a few suggestions.

The independent commission reviewing the April 2-3 disturbances is done and the East Lansing City Council now has the report.

They must make some careful decisions. There are 29 recommendations, ranging from small adjustments, such as making sure police officers can be easily identified to creating an area for sanctioned celebrations.

There are only a few months until March Madness, and if the city wants to implement any of the recommendations (many of which would take a lot of planning and funding) to make sure the disturbances don't happen again, they need to start now.

The commission cost money and time, not to mention it was supposed to accomplish something by investigating the April 2-3 disturbances. If none of the recommendations are considered, it would all have been a complete waste.

Another resolution for city officials should be taking a hard look at the East Village project.

The project would redevelop the land located south of Grand River Avenue to the Red Cedar River between Bogue Street and Hagadorn Road. That area is currently occupied by fraternities, businesses and apartment complexes (in which many students live) and would be replaced with a mixture of housing and businesses that would attract permanent residents as well.

At the Dec. 14 meeting, the planning commission agreed that it supported the development plan but acknowledged it still needs more work.

Keeping the fact that there is opposition to the plan in mind, the city needs to take a serious look at how it plans on redeveloping and if it's still a viable option. When the city plans on redeveloping huge tracks of land for private and public use, they need to do so with caution.

It's repetitive to say MSU's undergraduate student government needs to connect more with students. Students haven't been the most communicative with their representatives, many of whom they didn't even bother to vote for. If ASMSU wants to have an effective year, however, it needs to figure out a way to get their constituents to care.

It's great ASMSU is working toward getting more funding for MSU and higher education, but it should remember the things it can do closer to home, like continually advocating for students and their rights in the city. Just because the independent commission is done doesn't mean there aren't more issues the city and students will clash over.

Basketball happens every year, after all.

And finally, a good resolution for everyone:

Let's not have a riot this year. Don't give city officials another reason to form commissions that mean a lot on paper, but not much in real life.