Post Office Dreaming: Future Of Our Venerable Postal Service Is In Jeopardy

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The former Santa Monica post office at the corner of 5th and Arizona. “I think they got it wrong,” Congressman Waxman was quoted as saying about the sale of Santa Monica Post Office in the New York Times on March 7, 2013. “It’s a Depression-era structure, it’s an historic structure, one of the few Art Deco buildings in Santa Monica.”

By Susan Cloke – March 28, 2015
Wonderful mailman and mailwoman stories are the norm in Santa Monica. But post office stories are of long lines, waiting until it’s your turn and then having the person close for an unexplained reason, and counter clerks who often look as if being behind the counter is forced labor. Hard parking next to an industrial issue building adds to the many reasons people keep turning to other choices, more convenient choices, even if they are more costly.

To be fair to the Post Office, they were put in a financial vise by Congressional regulations that single them out for budget failure. USPS is fighting for its very existence. But is it making the best decisions to win that fight? …

… Post offices in historic buildings in small towns across the country offer welcoming lobbies and helpful postmasters and postal clerks who have found ways to make the post office a place people want to come; to get their mail, to sit and talk, to get the news of their neighbors and the town.

The future of our venerable postal service is in jeopardy. A business plan that made each post office a place people wanted to be would go a long way toward building a constituency for USPS. A business plan that made each post office central to the fabric of the community and listened to the community served seems to me to be essential for protecting the future of USPS….

Read Entire Article:   Post Office Dreaming: Future Of Our Venerable Postal Service Is In Jeopardy | Santa Monica Mirror.

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