Jamestown officials’ more aggressive stance toward zombie properties throughout the city is a good step to improve city neighborhoods.

A survey of city neighborhoods has revealed there are 45 zombie houses in the city and 175 to 200 abandoned or vacant properties in the city.

Mayor Eddie Sundquist and Benjamin Haskin, associate corporation counsel, want to use a provision in state law that allows the city to file a lawsuit to take control of abandoned and vacant houses while also filing zombie house lawsuits against banks that own properties that aren’t being maintained during prolonged foreclosure proceedings.

We would note that the zombie house lawsuits might not be necessary if the state Legislature hadn’t lengthened the foreclosure process last year, and that Assemblyman Andrew Goodell, R-Jamestown, argued that point on the floor of the legislature. One of the results of the state’s change to the foreclosure process are an increase in houses that are abandoned as part of a now longer foreclosure process.

But city officials have to live with the system the state gives them — and city officials should do all they can to hold banks responsible for the maintenance on properties they own.

We do hope city officials are cautious, however, about the properties they choose to take control of for the purposes of renovating and re-selling. Chautauqua County has a land bank for just such a purpose, and the last thing the city needs is to have ownership of a bunch of houses that it can’t fix or sell.

Substandard housing has been an issue in Jamestown for years, though, and we’re glad to see Sundquist and Crystal Surdyk, city development director, taking some action.