I admit my real concern about this is whether I will be able to continue to get DVDs from Netflix the next day. My processing facility is on the list being considered for closure.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/nation/postal-service-closures/
I have the same concern; the only way this will affect me is whether it delays the DVDs I receive from and send to Netflix. Everything else is no big deal; I don’t care whether it takes an additional day to get the monthly statements or bills.
It looks I might be okay. The Orlando processing center that my Netflix center is by is staying open.
It looks like some of the Netflix subscribers along the I-4 corridor are taking it in the shorts, since only the Tampa and Orlando processing centers are staying open.
Of course this might change. The main problem with the Post Office finances is the changes in the USPS pension plan ordered by congress. If enough people complain to their congressmen then it might be changed.
Mine is safe for the time being–I use my local post office at least twice a month, and when I need it, I *need *it. Not just for buying stamps, but I send books and other prezzies to friends, and ship donations to charities (books, clothes).
I am one of those dinosaurs who actually writes letters, and I still pay my bills by mail, too. So I hope they wait till I am dead before closing down the USPS.
There are those who make an argument that small town post offices are all those places have, they provide a vital service, and so on. But if you look at the OP’s second link, and then zoom into eastern New Mexico, there is a cluster of offices south of Clovis that did not need to exist when I went to college out there in the '90’s and certainly don’t need to be there now. This is the town of Pep, New Mexico. Causey, Rogers, and Dora are no larger. The population density is so low as to make a post office insane.
Yes, the budgetary savings might be slim, but those closing and many like them are the right move. I doubt anybody could adequately explain why there were post offices in these places to start with.
ETA - Here is the Google streetview of the Rogers, NM PO. A lot of traffic there!
I’m baffled by a couple of the post offices here, too (although they seem to have escaped closure somehow). There’s a stretch of road about five miles long, with three very small towns that each have a post office. Maybe 500 people live in all three combined, but they each have a post office. And it’s not like this is a distant off-the-grid place; they live right on a main road and it’s only a 10 mile trip into a community of substance. I think there’s maybe a single small carryout in one of the towns, but I don’t believe there are any other stores. People there are already having to travel the 10 miles to buy staple items like food and toiletries, and they don’t even get home delivery of their mail because the service areas of the tiny post offices are so small. (I can’t speak for anybody else, but I think that getting actual mail service would outweigh the inconvenience of the nearest post office being somewhere that I have to frequently go anyways.)
Close 'em all, I say.
Why?
Because this ain’t the Old West where democracy won’t work unless the US government delivers mail far and wide. Delivering things is a business, it’s not something the government should be doing.
It’s like the U.S. government has a military and prints money and does all sorts of other governmenty stuff and then just randomly has its own brand of barbecue sauce or something.
So if the Post Office goes away, along with its commitment to universal delivery, what do folks outside of cities do because commercial enterprises won’t deliver to them even now?
In the Senate hearings a couple months back, someone testified (and no one disputed) that the savings from closing the 3000+ rural branches on the list is less than 1% of their total annual budget. So save the money somewhere else, and let us keep our post office, even if it’s only open a couple hours a day (like it is now).
I’m thinking of senior citizens – many don’t use the internet, don’t drive (or shouldn’t drive).
Plus, I get all the good gossip from the postmistress.
The post office is the perfect example of bureaucratic ineptitude.* I will have a party when the very last one shuts down.
*This week I had the pleasure of overhearing a conversation at the post office in which the “manager” – aka someone with a high school education and a 60k paycheck – told a new resident that she had “no idea” why his mail wasn’t being delivered because “Bob” was a nice delivery guy. And that was all she had to say on the matter. Like hobos were stealing his mail and burning it in an alleyway for warmth.
The United States Constitution begs to differ.
Article I, Section 8, Clause 7.
In the towns (I hesitate to even call them that; one is simply a crossroads with a few houses) I’m thinking of, they’d still have a post office; it would just be in the same city as their grocery store, their doctor, their department store, etc.
If it doesn’t save any appreciable amount of money, fine, keep them, but there are absolutely post offices out there that aren’t actually necessary. My city is as long as the stretch of road I’m talking about, has at least twenty times the population, and has exactly one post office. And we get mail at home and not just a post office box. Most groups of 10 or 20 houses don’t have post offices in the middle, and the people who live in them get by just fine.
In the places I’m talking about, people have to interact with other places regularly in order to get basic living supplies. If they can’t go themselves, somebody has to go for them (even if Meals on Wheels goes out there, it doesn’t deliver toilet paper or toothpaste or vacuum cleaner bags or booze). Somebody can buy them a book of stamps that they can use with their fancy new mailbox, just like they’d have to do if they lived in an area that was developed after post offices stopped being installed at every populated crossroads.
Yes, I live in Erie PA our processing facility is going to be closed. This means all local mail will go to Pittsburgh first, no longer next day delivery with in the county, shit!
No surprise to me that the decrepit, little post office near me is on the list. The building itself should have been condemned ages ago. The parking lot is marginal at best. The lady who works there is really sweet and it’s very convenient for me on the rare occasions that I need to buy stamps or send a package, but I fully expected it to go. Farewell, Helen, MD post office.
I am surprised that the facility that’s essentially a trailer is safe. On the other hand, it’s in the thick of an Amish area, so I expect it’s used more than some others.
Same story here; my town in eastern KY had a mail processing facility that is closing. All of our mail will be sorted in Knoxville, and pretty much everything will take an extra day to get here.
I don’t really care about the extra time, but it means losing a handful of jobs in a county that really doesn’t need that right now.
I’ve never understood this argument. I can put a letter in a box in front of my house, and for 45 cents the USPS will take it anywhere in the country that I want them to. And they do it with remarkable consistency; 99% of the times that something gets "lost in the mail’ it was actually jacked up on one end or the other.
I’ve had way bigger headaches dealing with UPS, FedEx, and (especially) DHL than the USPS. In fact, the few times I’ve had something shipped via DHL they just had it shipped to Lexington and then mailed it to me, in the end taking far longer and costing far more than if they had just mailed it in the first place.
I’m pleasantly surprised that none of the post offices near me are slated for closure; I was honestly expecting a few of them to be on the chopping block.
I’m happier more for the people who get to keep their jobs more than anything else. I do the vast majority of my long-distance communication online anyway; the only times I rely on mail are when I send out or receive gifts on holidays or when I purchase an item from Amazon or something (which only happens intermittently).
I don’t want to see the Post Office get shuttered at all; in my mind, it provides an incredibly efficient and vital service. That said, yeah, it needs some restructuring in order to remain relevant in the internet age.
Not being a lawyer or anything, but would eliminating the USPS require a constitutional amendment?
Probably not as the language “To establish Post Offices and Post Roads” is within section 8, “Powers of Congress”, which I assume implies that Congress has the right to abolish the USPS… but I don’t know if this has been established (which, of course, is not saying that it hasn’t been established.)