Contact your alderman. That is a must do.
If you don't have a good alderman, yeah, you could be hurting.
All of KIngston comes down to the elected officials. If that's bad, all the rest is bad.

Just because it is allegedly abandoned doesn't mean it disappears from the tax assessment roll. You can find out who owns it by going to the county assessor's office. If back taxes are owed, the county tax collector can tell you. If the problem is not resolved by Grievance Day in May, file a grievance petition with the city assessor's office to have the value of your own property reduced because of the neighboring property's nuisance factor. The nuisance factor applied to your property can also be applied to all the other properties in the neighborhood. Thus, everybody's taxes go down, and the people who are living out of the neighborhood will have there's go up. Get it?

You can call the city assessors office. They will very graciously give you the owners name and address over the phone. It's that easy.
Be ready with an envelope/stamp/paper and off it goes to the owner

Sorry, left this off:
Maryann Bahruth, Assessor
(845) 334-3910
Fax (845) 334-3913
Email
420 Broadway
Kingston, NY 12401

Don't be distracted. You want county. One oversees the other, and what you have is an oversight.

Don't forget, also, to find out what the assessed value of the land is, and the assessed value of the house. In fact, get a sheet listing the assessed values for the entire neighborhood. You will be awestruck by it. There is nothing to smile about here.

For now, and maybe long into the future, owning a home will not be a fast returning investment. Our homes got tied up in a Las Vegas gambling game, and like the loose women of yore, a lot of virtue got traded away.
The are many structural flaws to the notion of a global economy...
What used to work, and will work now is the simple matter of acting locally... make the neighborhood nice, shop locally and like Garrison says "do good work, keep in touch"...
There's is a lot to be said for living in a nice house in a nice town with nice neighbors even if the house isn't worth squat. Well, of course, if your representatives are no good, if you don't have really good government, all bets are off...
Let's see if we can get that house on Franklin cleaned up.
Neighborhood Watch is on the case...
Aside from talking here, to each other, we need to take it to the city departments... we could have 100 of us chatting, but nothing will happen if the issue doesn't get beyond this.
So, I'll get off this, get another letter to the press written, a note to the owner...

Thanks so much for ALL the advice. It's my understanding that this house is in the process of being sold, IF NOT, there is someone who has told me they're interested? The WINDY season is upon us, AND when the debris that surrounds this property starts blowing - the local residents are faced with problems caused by this "unkept" property -- should we just grin and bare it? Curious minds want to know?

Step in and take action and clean up what you can.
This is an unimportant investment to some unknown, unidentified people. To you, it's about your homes and your neighborhood.
Take action. Clean up the place as best you can. Put some yellow tape up around the poperty lines.
The worst that will happen is that the real owner will object, come forward, and maybe be served with a couple of dozen fines for neglecting the property.
Note that this area has already been surveyed by Salzman's block my block study... doesn't look like it was effective.

Have all the neighborhood throw their garbage into the yard and then ask the neighboring towns and villages to come clean it up, just like they do the welfare fund system.

Pictures are worth a Thousand Words! KNW is on this - Thanks!

Some litter has already been picked up, a mum planted in the yard.
Reduce the litter free, carry some of the trash away, little by little.
KNW is on this: that's good news!

An earlier post stated that this house was in the process of being sold by October 2010 - has the deal been closed?? Also, per Gerald Berke's request the trash can was set out for the Monday morning trash pickup and some debris was also picked up.
A locked chain is across the driveway. There is another Interested party for this house IF the deal is NOT closed?? PS TX to K.N.W. for flowers . . .

Thanks! How very encouraging. I'll plan to pick up and check up again.
:-)
Keep in touch

Along with the unkept building/property -- the fence needs repair also.

Has this house been sold yet? ? ?

Can we get an update, and possible close this?

Action has been taken.
This house has been boarded up. The grounds have been picked up (at least in front)...
There is nothing to be done at this point. It's in disrepair, it's unsold, it's ugly.
It's up to us to keep it free from litter, either by not throwing it or picking it up. It's our neighborhood.

Alright, open this one back up if needed.