The Postal Service is shutting down New York City’s Peter Stuyvesant Station at 432 East 14th Street and relocating retail services about a block away. When it does a relocation like this, the Postal Service is supposed to follow section 241.4 of the Code of Federal Regulations on “Expansion, relocation, and construction of post offices." But it appears that the law … Read More
Fun with numbers: The Postal Service is losing $25 million a day, and other spurious memes
Yesterday the Postal Service released its preliminary financial report for April 2013. The line on controllable operating expenses shows that the Postal Service basically broke even for the month. It lost $1 million — less than 0.02 percent of April's revenues. For the first seven months of fiscal year 2013, the Postal Service has lost $131 million (0.3 percent of … Read More
New York’s Greeley Square Post Office gets a new location: Who knew?
Greeley Square is a small triangular park in New York City, bounded by West 32nd and West 33rd Streets, and Broadway and Sixth Avenue. It’s a charming spot in a bustling area, with tables and chairs, a food kiosk, and a surprising number of trees for a small square on Broadway. I’ve walked by Greeley Square hundreds of times, a … Read More
The writing on the wall in Reading: The Postal Service pulls a fast one
The Postal Service is putting another historic post office up for sale, and as usual it's showing little interest in hearing from the public or following the law. Selling off historic post offices isn't easy. Not only does the Postal Service need to find a buyer willing to take on the encumbrances associated with a historic building; there are … Read More
In bad faith: How the Postal Service is selling the Redlands post office
This year marks the 80th anniversary of the Main Post Office on Brookside Avenue in Redlands, California. It's a downtown landmark, it's on the National Register of Historic Places, and it even has its own postal museum. Now the Postal Service is closing down the Redlands Main Post Office and selling the building. Plans for the sale were first … Read More
Dismantling the legacy: More post office suspensions, relocations, and sales
The Postal Service is continuing its push to dismantle the country’s vast network of brick-and-mortar post offices. Post offices are being suspended over minor lease disputes, historic buildings are being sold to the highest bidder, and retail services are being moved to smaller, usually less convenient locations. Post offices just don’t seem very important to the leadership of the Postal … Read More