Back in October, musician Zoe Keating wrote a great piece about the closing of her post office in Camp Meeker, California (which we posted here). The good news is that the post office is reopening. The bad news is that its hours will soon be reduced to four a day. Everyone is celebrating anyway. Read more.
Bronx post office interior gets landmark status
The Landmarks Preservation Commission on Tuesday granted landmark status to the interior of the main post office in the Bronx. The exterior was designated a landmark by the commission in 1976. But the interior remained unprotected, and preservationists worried about the fate of famous 1930s murals by Ben Shahn and Bernarda Bryson Shahn as the United States Postal Service intends to … Read More
Relocation, relocation, relocation: The new M.O. for closing post offices
The Postal Service may no longer be talking about closing thousands of post offices, but it has been busy “relocating” them. In dozens of cities across the country, a downtown post office is being closed and the building, often a historic landmark, is being sold. According to the Postal Service, however, the post office isn't actually "closing." Because a new, … Read More
Canada Post is not on life support, it is being murdered
A member of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers has a piece today that explains how Canada Post is being killed by privatization advocates. It will sound all too familar to those following what's happening with the USPS. Did you know that Deepak Chopra, the head of Canada Post, was formerly the President and Chief Executive Officer of Pitney Bowes Canada … Read More
The plot to kill the U.S. Postal Service
Gray Brechin, project scholar of the Living New Deal, has an op-ed piece in the San Francisco Gate that's a must-read. It starts like this: "No other nation in the world possesses the cultural heritage so nobly embodied in America's prewar post offices and the New Deal works of art they often contain. Until recently, however, most Americans were unaware that what they … Read More
Seven arrested at mail facility in Springfield, Oregon
CPWU press release: “Save the mail or go to jail,” was the chant from a crowd of forty protesters at the Springfield Gateway mail plant at noon today, the busiest postal day of the year. They came from Eugene, Portland, Corvallis, Cottage Grove and across Oregon, concerned about the scheduled February closure of the facility. Seven “postal protectors” climbed up … Read More
Modesto’s historic downtown post office soon to become law offices
A law firm will soon take over the main floor of downtown Modesto’s historic El Viejo post office. Most of the the Depression-era murals by Ray Boynton and his assistants in the post office lobby will remain, while a couple of others, long thought missing, are in the possession of the federal government. The lobby murals probably continue to be owned … Read More
Danville VA city council passes post office resolution
The post office in Danville, Virginia, was recently closed after failing a safety inspection, due to fears that peeling paint might be lead-based. Now the city council is considering a resolution the U.S. Postal Service and federal court “retain their presence” at the downtown post office location. The city government, private investors and the business community have rolled the dice and … Read More
Pave Paradise and get cluster-boxed
The town of Paradise Valley, Arizona, repaved one mile of sidewalk along Tatum Boulevard as part of a beautification project, and even though it just meant using a different material, the Postal Service says that its vehicles can no longer deliver the mail there, so now it's time for a cluster box unit. “It is one of the most ridiculous things I … Read More
Canada gets cluster-boxed: Why it can’t happen here
Canada Post announced this week that over the next five years it would be converting five million urban residences from door delivery to cluster box units (CBUs), also known euphemistically as Community Mailboxes (CMBs). Along with other cost-cutting initiatives, like consolidating processing plants, closing post offices, and reducing employee benefits, the Canada plan will supposedly save $700 to $900 million … Read More
APWU files amended complaint on mail delays
The APWU has filed an Amended Complaint with the Postal Regulatory Commission providing more details about how the Postal Service is failing to meet service standards for the delivery of the mail. The Complaint asks the PRC "to cease and desist from making changes in its mail processing network that will cause it to violate service standards." In other words, … Read More
HuffPost: Dianne Feinstein’s Husband Tied To Questionable Dealings With Postal Service
Huffington Post has a piece about Peter Byrne's new book investigating the sale of postal properties by CBRE, the world's largest commercial real estate firm, whose chairman is Richard C. Blum, husband of Senator Dianne Feinstein. The piece follows articles in the Wall Street Journal and L.A. Times, which suggests that this story isn't going away anytime soon. Read more. You can … Read More
The Postal Service tries to pull a fast one in Harlem
BY CHUCK ZLATKIN The federal regulations on relocating post offices don’t put a lot of demands on the Postal Service — a public hearing, a short comment period, a week’s notice before the meeting, and not much more. In many cases, the Postal Service follows the letter of the law while completely disregarding the spirit, which is simply to give … Read More
Ralph Nader Wants You to Save the Post Office
Ralph Nader, the consumer advocate and presidential candidate, has inundated the U.S. Postal Service for decades with suggestions. Even in better times, he was concerned that American citizens were being short changed by the agency, which lost $5 billion last year, thanks to the proliferation of e-mail and the added burden of having to pre-pay its retiree health benefits. Today, … Read More
Postal Service Disrespects Harlem Community – Refuses to hold Town Hall meeting on relocation of College Station
APWU New York Metro: "The United States Postal Service will make a proposal to “relocating” the historic College Station Post Office located at 217 West 140th Street at an unpublicized meeting of Community Board 10’s Economic Development committee this Thursday, December 12th at 6:30 pm. In other communities such as Chelsea and the Lower East Side, the Postal Service has held well … Read More
