LI residents upset over neighborhood eyesores

August 10, 2012 6:45 PM

Properties wind up abandoned for a variety of reasons — foreclosure, death of the owner, divorce are among them. And sometimes owners who have moved away just want to hold on to a property here. The presence of such unmaintained houses is growing as the foreclosure crisis continues, said Christopher Niedt, academic director of the National Center for Suburban Studies at Hofstra University. And that translates into more and more neighborhoods across Long Island, and the nation, left with an eyesore in their midst — and residents wondering why more of them can’t be restored or razed or even condemned by the municipality.