Last year the Postal Service sold the historic Santa Monica post office to Skydance Productions, a film production company based out of Paramount Pictures in Hollywood. A couple of weeks ago, Skydance went to the Landmarks Commission seeking a Certificate of Appropriateness for an eight-foot-high “security”fence around the property. To justify the fence, the applicant and their legal representative said famous people frequenting the premises would … Read More
USPS appeals PRC ruling on First Class Mail Parcels
The Postal Service has filed an appeal with the U.S. Court of Appeals, District of Columbia, challenging the Postal Regulatory Commission’s ruling on the transfer of First Class Mail Parcels from the market-dominant list to the competitive list. Last week, the Postal Service filed a Petition for Review asking the court to review the PRC’s denial of the transfer. The … Read More
Another post office in Houston earmarked for relocation and disposal
The Postal Service hasn’t discontinued many post offices over the past couple of years, but it has closed some for emergency suspensions, and it has also relocated several others. In some cases, the Postal Service relocated from one leased property to another, moving to a smaller space where the rent was cheaper. In other cases, the Postal Service moved out … Read More
Downtown Palo Alto post office to stay put — for now
Postal Service officials have nixed plans to move the downtown Palo Alto post office to a building on the corner of Addison Avenue and busy Alma Street, Tom Samra, facilities vice president, said in a letter to Mayor Karen Holman dated Aug. 19. The letter called the decision "final." Officials said they were considering various options, including selling the Hamilton building and … Read More
Decision to relocate and sell downtown post office in Provo already a done deal?
The Postal Service is working behind the scenes on a deal to relocate the post office on 100 South in downtown Provo, Utah, and to sell the building to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. According to a news report in the Daily Herald, on Thursday of this week Postmaster General Megan Brennan visited the downtown post office, and … Read More
Postal Service releases August 2015 financial statement
The Postal Service has released its financial statement for August 2015. As usual, there’s some good news, and some not so good. Compared to August 2014, volumes and revenues for First Class, Standard, and Periodicals are all down a few percent, and total volume for market-dominant mail is down 4.3 percent; total market-dominant revenue is down 6.5 percent. On the other … Read More
USPS sold Chicago’s Old MPO for $24 million, may be worth $150 million
In 2009, the Postal Service sold the historic Old Main Post Office in Chicago to British real estate developer Bill Davies for $24 million. A couple of years later, the Postal Service also sold Davies the postal annex to the east of the MPO for $14 million. After scuttling plans to develop the property with twin towers, Davies put it … Read More
Mold closes post office in Princess Anne, MD
Another post office has been closed because of mold. After a Postal Service inspection team disocvered mold in the post office on Somerset Avenue in Princess Anne, Maryland, postal officials decided to shut down the building for the safety of customers and workers, said Yvette Singh, a spokeswoman for the USPS in Baltimore. Postal workers have been servicing customers since Saturday from … Read More
On the border of the boundary wars: The PRC’s order on First Class Mail Parcels
Last month the Postal Regulatory Commission denied the Postal Service’s request to transfer retail, single-piece First-Class Mail Parcels from the market-dominant list to the competitive list, where it would have become a category of First-Class Package Services. FCM Parcels are lightweight packages weighing 13 ounces or less, and they’re typically used by individuals and small businesses to ship things like … Read More
NYC’s Historic Farley Post Office is now Fashion Week’s central hub
New York Fashion Week has made the historic James A. Farley Post Office in NYC its central hub. That means what while the most discerning style icons in the world are shuffling in and out the back doors on their way to fashion shows, the rest of the city will be using the front of the building to mail packages. Here’s how the massive structure across the … Read More
Restored post office mural to be re-installed in museum
The depression-era mural, Emigrants at Nightfall by Loren Mozley, was removed from the walls of the post office in Alvin, Texas, back in 1966, and put into storage in the basement. Many years later a postal employee contacted the Alvin Museum Society and asked if they would like to have it. Now, decades later, the mural has been restored, and on September … Read More
Historic Fort Worth PO gets a cleaning
The 1933 U.S. post office in downtown Fort Worth is getting a good cleaning for the first time in decades. Arlene Sanchez, spokeswoman for the U.S. Postal Service, said the spiffing-up isn’t part of any plan to sell the building, an idea that had surfaced in 2014. She said workers are doing a low-pressure wash with restoration cleansers “to remove … Read More
Using the U.S. Census to prevent post office closings
Last week Congressman Raúl M. Grijalva (D-AZ) announced that he would re-introduce legislation that would prohibit the Postal Service “from closing or consolidating any post office or other postal facility that is located in a ZIP code that has a high rate of population growth.” The bill “directs the Postmaster General to determine annually whether a ZIP code has a high rate … Read More
New book explains why we need a postal bank
A new book entitled How the Other Half Banks by Mehrsa Baradaran makes a great argument for why we need a postal banking system. The book explains how economic inequality in this country is caused largely by unequal credit. A significant portion of the population has been deserted by the banking system and is consequently forced to use payday lenders and check-cashing … Read More
USPS announces plan to dispose of historic post office in Clarksburg, WV
Despite the efforts of several elected officials in Congress and the recommendations of both the USPS Office of Inspector General and the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, the Postal Service continues to sell off its legacy of historic post offices. This week the Postal Service announced plans to relocate retail services out of the historic Post Office and Federal Building … Read More
The third time a charmer? USPS takes PRC to court over the exigent rate increase, again
The Postal Service is taking the Postal Regulatory Commission to court over the exigent rate increase. On August 28th, the Postal Service filed a Petition for Review of PRC Order No. 2623, Resolving Issues On Remand, in Docket R2013-11R. This will mark the third time the Postal Service has appealed a PRC ruling on the case, going back to 2010 when the Postal … Read More
