We don’t suggest that dealing with foreclosures is simple for village government. The process of foreclosing is long, complex and painful. The owner of a property is in financial turmoil and unlikely to be swayed by fine notices from inspectors. Banks eventually take ownership, and neither are they motivated to invest in a balance sheet liability.
But as our front-page story last week on a southeast Oak Park coach house overtaken by raccoons suggested, the village needs to do better than this. In a town where chipped paint can get you taken to housing court, homes empty for years, boarded up or lost in the process cannot be allowed to simply rot.