The US Postal Service is on a tear, shutting down post offices right and left across the country. I’m looking for stories from communities where this is happening. It’s happening right now, in Ukiah, California, located 100 miles north of San Francisco in Mendocino County.
The Postal Service has to close a couple thousand post offices, it says. Otherwise, it won’t have enough money to contribute to its pension fund. And, besides, use of the US mail is way down, putting the Postal Service in the red.
The Postal Service is the only governmental entity that is forced to pre-fund its pension fund. Congress could change that in a heartbeat, but hasn’t. Apparently, Congress prefers to sit by while the Postal Service closes properties on the National Register of Historic Places, even some that include original art commissioned during the New Deal. More below the fold . . .
If use of the US mails is way down, then how come I have so much junk mail in my mail box every day? What the post office means is that because use of first class mail is way down, and because that subsidizes the junk mail, there’s a problem. Without more first class mail, the books won’t balance. Congress could set higher rates for junk mail, forcing the junk mailers to pay their way, or use the Internet. But Congress hasn’t acted (except to raise first class rates) because of the huge amounts of money put into lobbying campaigns by the purveyors of junk mail, not to mention targeted campaign contributions by those same interests.
You would think that if the Postal Service decided to close a post office in your town it would tell you why. It would give you the information it used to decide to close your post office, wouldn’t you think? Well, if you did think that, you’d be wrong. The Postal Service claims that it is exempt from the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) because the information is “proprietary.” The Postal Service won’t even show Congress the information! The rationale for closing a post office, even assuming there is one, remains proprietary to the Postal Service.
I’m telling you all this because my post office is on the hit list. Built during the New Deal in 1936 as a public works project, the Ukiah Post Office has an original mural by a noted artist, Ben Cunningham, whose art adorns Coit Tower in San Francisco. And, never mind that my post office is eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places.
Never mind that closing my post office will result in driving across town to use an ugly “annex” that wouldn’t lend itself to any art, let alone a beautiful mural by a famous artist. Or, that there will have to be 32 new parking spaces at the “annex” to accommodate all the traffic. Now, most customers walk to the post office, a block from the main shopping and business district.
Environmental analysis could forestall the closure you’d think. Contrary to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), and its own regulations, the “required” analysis won’t happen until a decision is final, whatever that means. The Postal Service doesn’t recognize that the purpose of NEPA is to require environmental analysis and consideration of alternatives before decisions are made, not after.
In the world of the Postal Service, up is down, down is up, and the laws for other government agencies don’t apply.
This is grassroots stuff. If you know of other communities where this is happening, please tell your story in comments, or in a separate Daily Kos Diary. Only by gathering stories of the devastation wreaked by these senseless-but-nevertheless-nationwide closures can we assemble enough support to put a stop to them.
For more information about the Ukiah Post Office, go to these links:
http://www.savethepostoffice.com/...
http://www.ukiahpostoffice.com/
http://www.facebook.com/...
http://www.radiocurious.org/...
http://ukiahcommunityblog.wordpress.com/...
http://www.therepublic.com/...
And please tell your story.