To address a problem, first you have to recognize and acknowledge it. Norwich city officials deserve credit for doing just that. In the past couple of years they have taken to the streets of city neighborhoods to view firsthand problems of blight, littering and inadequate maintenance.

These are not easy or inexpensive problems to fix. Perhaps that is why it is sometimes easier for elected leaders not to look too close. But attacking blight was among the issues Mayor Deberey Hinchey set as a priority when running successfully for office in 2013. And good to her word, her administration has at least tried to peck away at the problem.

Under Hinchey’s urging, the council has passed regulations aimed at attacking blight, including added powers to deal with properties left vacant by foreclosures. Norwich has a blight officer.

On several occasions, groups of city officials — including building and fire inspectors, police, public works personnel and utility workers — have joined elected leaders and local residents in touring urban neighborhoods. Visits have included Greeneville last August, the village of Taftville a few months later, and the Broad Street neighborhood not far from Norwich Free Academy in April 2016.

The most recent focus for a neighborhood tour was the homes and empty lots surrounding Cliff Street, two weeks ago. That neighborhood took a blow when in 2012 the Diocese of Norwich relocated the St. Vincent de Paul Place soup kitchen in a former Catholic school there. There is a need for the soup kitchen, no doubt, but residents complained that the influx of the poor pushed the already struggling neighborhood in the wrong direction.

A legal dispute pitted the church’s right to pursue the Christian calling of charity against the city’s right to regulate services. The subsequent settlement allowed the soup kitchen to continue and its operators do appear to be doing their best to be good neighbors.

This week City Manager John Salomone presented a report to the council assigning tasks to various city departments to address issues noted on the tour of the neighborhood, including cleaning up and cordoning off a vacant property, examining the potential for using security cameras to discourage illegal activity in an old cemetery, cutting back brush and fixing sidewalks.

In other neighborhoods, city officials have cut back overgrown brush, installed street signs and removed debris. The council authorized $30,000 to clean up a no longer used Little League field in Taftville, providing some green open space in the densely developed neighborhood. The council included another $65,000 to continue progress on the Taftville park in the new community development block grant allocations.

While the steps are unlikely to transform these neighborhoods, they are steps in the right direction. Ignoring blight invites more of it, which in turns discourages residents and results in a decline in owner-occupied homes.

Norwich officials are trying. More communities should mirror their neighborhood-visiting program.