The Postal Service moves forward on selling the historic post offices in Berkeley and the Bronx
Yesterday two of the country’s most significant historic post offices — the 1916 Berkeley post office and the 1935 Bronx GPO — came a step closer to being sold. Mr. Tom Samra, USPS Vice President, Facilities, rendered his final decision on the Berkeley post office. The Postal Service will relocate retail services to a yet-to-be-determined location, and the historic building … Read More
Berkeley gets the bad news: The Postal Service makes a final decision to sell the historic post office
Mr. Tom Samra, USPS Vice President, Facilities, has rendered his final decision on the Berkeley post office. The Postal Service will relocate retail services from the building, and it will soon be put up for sale. You can read his statement here. In a related development, the Postal Service filed a motion with the Postal Regulatory Commission to dismiss the … Read More
Legacy at risk: The OIG audits the Postal Service’s disposal of historic properties
The USPS Office of Inspector General is preparing an audit report about the sale of historic post office buildings. The objective of the study is “to review the Postal Service’s process and plans for the disposal and preservation of historic properties.” The OIG poses two main questions: “Do you think the Postal Service follows proper procedures when disposing of historic … Read More
Historic Norristown PA post office to be sold
The U.S. Postal Service has announced plans to sell the Norristown Post Office at 28 E. Airy St. and relocate the retail services to a nearby building. The post office was built in 1940 under the New Deal, and it’s a landmark in downtown Norristown, but the opportunity for the public to comment will be limited. Since it’s a “relocation” decision, … Read More
Postal Service to La Jolla: Sorry, the dismantling must go on
The Postal Service has issued a Final Determination to relocate retail services in La Jolla, California, thus paving the way for the eventual sale of the historic New Deal post office. Tom Samra, Vice President, Facilities, was responsible for reviewing the appeals, and not unexpectedly, he came to the same decision that he made regarding the relocation of the Bronx … Read More
Final Blow: Postal Service issues ‘final determination’ to sell La Jolla’s post office
The day after La Jollans celebrated their country’s independence with a fireworks display at the cove, the Postal Service tacked a notice to the Wall Street post office that many La Jollans consider decidedly unpatriotic — USPS’s “final determination” of plans to sell the historic building at 1140 Wall St. Community members who have been working to keep postal services … Read More
USPS to Bronx: Drop dead — the GPO must go
The Postal Service has decided to go ahead with the sale of the historic Bronx General Post Office. Tom Samra, Vice President of Facilities for the USPS, has issued his “Final Decision for Relocation of Retail Services in Bronx, New York.” (A copy is here.) The Bronx GPO is on the National Register of Historic Places, it's an official New … 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
Dismantling the legacy: More post office suspensions, relocations, and sales
-920x519.jpg)
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
Binding the nation together: Berkeley and the Bronx join forces to save the post office
For our Founding Fathers, post offices and post roads played an essential role in “binding our nation together.” Congress reaffirmed that vision when it passed the Postal Reorganization Act of 1970: “The Postal Service shall have as its basic function the obligation to provide postal services to bind the Nation together.” The leaders of the Postal Service appear to have … Read More
Postal Service looks to close five large New York City Post Offices
Five large post offices in New York may be closed over the coming months. Most likely, retail services will be relocated to smaller spaces in the neighborhood, and several hundred letter carriers who work out of the back of the buildings will be transferred to other postal facilities. The closures would have a dramatic impact on their communities, and the … Read More
A done deal in Derby: The Postal Service decides first, consults later, ignores the law
On Monday, the Postal Service announced that “it is considering plans” to sell the historic post office in Derby, Connecticut. Such a sale requires a formal review process, and the Postal Service has taken the first steps in that process by informing city officials and the public of its plans. The process involves a fairly complicated legal procedure, and it … Read More
A Bronx Cheer for the Postal Service: The Fire Sale of Historic Post Offices Continues
Earlier this week the Postal Service announced that it planned to sell the historic post office on the Grand Concourse in the Bronx, New York. There's an excellent article about the post office by David W. Dunlap in Friday's New York Times. The Bronx General Post Office is the largest of twenty-nine Depression-era post offices in New York City. Built in … Read More
Murderous Reform: A Plan to Privatize Postal Profits at Public Expense
BY GRAY BRECHIN The National Academy of Public Administration has released a “Work-in-Progress” report entitled “Restructuring the U.S. Postal System: The Case for a Hybrid Public-Private Postal System.” The Academy is now embarking on a study of this proposal, which would privatize a large portion of the country’s postal system. The Academy’s study is billed as an “Independent Review of a … Read More
Eureka! The Postal Service finds gold in California
The Postal Service has been actively selling off historic post office buildings for over a year now. About forty have been sold or put up for sale. They’re scattered around the country, but for some reason more than a third of them are in California. Last week news came out that one of the most beautiful post offices in the … Read More