The National Post Office Collaborate, a Berkeley-based group fighting the sale of historic post offices across the country, has written to the California State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO), requesting permission to participate in the Section 106 consultation process for the sale of the Berkeley post office. The Postal Service has generally argued that it isn't required to follow the National … Read More
Historic Berkeley Post Office is listed for sale on CBRE website
The historic post office in Berkeley, California, is now being listed on the USPS-CBRE Properties for Sale website. No price yet. The listing went up over this past weekend, and it has already evoked some colorful responses. City councilman Jesse Arreguín released the following statement: ”It’s not often that one encounters such brazen bad faith — even in politics! The USPS cannot on … Read More
Peter Byrne Speaks to Berkeley Post Office Defenders on BlumStein: The Duo Looting the Post Office and UC
On Saturday, September 28th, 2013, investigative reporter Peter Byrne addressed a rally to save the Berkeley Post Office and fight back against the privatization of our commons. Byrne recently published the e-book (soon to available in print!) Going Postal: U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein’s husband sells post offices to his friends, cheap.”. Excerpts from the book were published in a recent East … Read More
The Truth about the Closing of the Berkeley Post Office Camp-Out
Lydia Gans writes the following: "The sudden attack by the city on the four week long camp-out to save the Berkeley Post Office was a sad ending to a spirited and peaceful action that was in the interest of the community. With people staffing a literature table and gathering petitions, urging folks to write letters in addition to organizing marches … Read More
PRC dismisses appeal to stop Berkeley post office sale
An appeal to stop the sale of the historic 99-year-old post office in Downtown Berkeley was dismissed by the Postal Regulatory Commission on Tuesday. The appeal, filed by Mayor Tom Bates, contends that the U.S. Postal Service should select a site for the Berkeley main post office’s relocation before selling the building and did not consider how the sale will … Read More
Berkeley scholar on radio to discuss sale of post offices
Gray Brechin, a visiting scholar at UC Berkeley and founder of the Living New Deal Project, as on KALW radio to discuss the significance of post office and historic postal buildings like the Berkeley post office, which is about to be sold. More than 600 buildings have been targeted for sale. Brechin has plenty to say about the role … Read More
Berkeley post office protest continues despite warnings from US Postal Service
From Inside Bay Area: "More than a dozen uniformed postal police and nonuniformed postal inspectors turned up the heat on protesters at the downtown post office late in the afternoon on Aug. 5, warning those occupying tents on the post office steps that they were violating federal law. "All U.S. Postal Service property is closed to the public after normal … Read More
Sale of Berkeley post office building means loss of rich history
Gray Brechin, the project scientist of the Living New Deal based in the UC Berkeley Department of Geography, has an Op-Ed in The Daily Californian that's well worth reading. Responding to the Postal Service's explanation that it doesn't need all the space in the Berkeley post office and it would be better to lease a smaller space, Brechin writes, … Read More
Camping protesters ordered to disperse from steps of Berkeley post office
The Contra Costs Times has this: "Though the group of people camping out at Berkeley's historic post office in protest of plans to close it have been warned to move off U.S. Postal Service property, they have no plans to disperse. "A group of postal inspectors and postal police met with protesters Friday and told them that they needed to … Read More