The announcement came with last Friday afternoon's news dump: Post Office officials confirmed that the Berkeley Post Office was "under contract" to be sold, after rumors had been flying for the last day or so.
"In contract"
The Postal Service has been trying to sell the downtown Berkeley Post Office for over two years now - a potential sale was first announced in June, 2012.
In that time, public hearings with unanimous opposition to the idea have been held, the steps of the building were Occupied for 30 days, large numbers of politicians - from City Councilors to the California Legislature to US Senators - have spoken out against the sale and more generally the privatization of the Post Office, reports highly critical of the processes the Postal Service uses to sell historic post offices have been published, and Berkeley ultimately succeeded in going so far as to rezone the downtown Civic Center Historical District, which includes the Post Office property, so that it could not be used for commercial purposes.
After a moratorium of sorts on the sale of historic Post Offices for almost a year:
- The Bronx Post Office was sold in September, 2014.
- The Somerville, MA Post Office was sold in early October.
- The Richmond, VA Post Office was put up for sale.
- On 10/24/14 the USPS said the Berkeley Post Office is "under contract."
The Postal Service has refused so far to say who the purchaser "under contract" is or what the sales price might be. And the City of Berkeley, which through its City Council has voiced unanimous opposition to the sale, is getting ready to sue (the sale of the Stamford, CT Post Office was halted dead in its tracks by a lawsuit about a year ago).
The sales agent is the notorious CBRE corporation, which has exclusive contract to sell Post Office's around the country AND has and is acting as both the seller's and buyer's agents in these transactions, selling properties at less than market value to its "buddies," all as documented extensively in investigative reporter Peter Byrne's book Going Postal.
Save the Berkeley Post Office, Berkeley Post Office Defenders, and First They Came for the Homeless will be holding events at the downtown Berkeley Post Office all day and into the evening on Saturday, November 1st, 2014. Barbara Lee is scheduled to speak at 11:00 AM sharp (don't be late, I'm told she is on a very tight schedule!).
If you're in the area "come on down!" and let us show our continued mass opposition to a sale. Check the above websites and these calendar entries: here and here, for updates.
If you're into technical details, legalities and lawsuits surrounding the sale, How to Get Away with Destroying America's Heritage. is a great writeup.
For background on the privatization of the Post Office: Killing the Post Office on the Altar of Privatization. For a history of the effort to Save the Berkeley Post Office check out this timeline.