Post Offices Closing

[milt721]

Several post offices are slated to close; including the one in the Ren Cen. Check out the list:

Phoenix, Pontiac
Ferndale
Kensington, Detroit
Livernois, Detroit
Reniassance Center, Detroit
Springwells, Detroit
Brightmoor, Detroit
Fenkell, Detroit
Highland Park
Joyfield, Detroit
Northwestern, Detroit
Seven Oaks Station, Detroit
Strathmoor, Detroit

SLIGHTLY more info at: http://www.clickondetroit.com/money/...52/detail.html

[detroitsgwenivere]

Great, more empty buildings to deal with, more unemployed middle class...

I hope UPS is hiring

[Gannon]

They already closed that excellent one in the Penobscot, right?!

Is there anything walkable in the downtown area any longer, then?!


<sigh>


Sign of the times...

[lilpup]

The little one in Pleasant Ridge City Hall is supposed to close, too, or already has.

[English]

Seven Oaks Station, Detroit

My dad carried mail out of Seven Oaks for about 15 years. The neighborhood loved him and he was on the softball team. This news would have been heartbreaking to him.

Any other Detroit postal workers or postal workers' spouses/kids around these parts? Everyone seemed to know each other. My dad had nearly a thousand people at his funeral, many of them post office folks... I was too young to fully appreciate the fellowship and friendships that were formed.

[SWMAP]

The Springwells Stationhas long been a pit. I avoid going there at all costs, even though I must sometimes pick up envelopes that need my signature from there.

Now where will mail like that go - I suppose the Livernois station - another awful place.

I am ashamed of the [[former) Main post office. The operations people just don't care about how it looks. Litter situation is better, but there has been one of those plastic advertising signs on a utility post in front of the building forever. You need a ladder to get it - but if they cared about how the building looks it would be gone.

And Detroit doesn't have a postmark anymore. We are a "Metroplex."

Another annoying thing while I'm at it - now you have to pay the meter to go to the post office at night.

[lilpup]

Flint is losing their downtown office.

[Brock7]

Here's the list of Michigan post offices studied for closing at the USPS site:
http://about.usps.com/news/electroni...s/michigan.htm

[rencense]

all these post office closings bug me [[more than most) I'm kind of an ebay junkie and sell a lot of stuff, its very nice to have a po nearby.

It sure seems like the city is being hit especially hard. For example both the springwells and livernois stations are on the close list and [[aside from a little mini po in the price valley maket) are the only two post offices in SW that I'm aware of. In contrast, in the little town i grew up in there are two post offices not even a mile apart [[and we're talking about a city of a few thousand bordered by an even smaller one)

I'm also saddened to see the rencen location close. This is another one that seems strange. Now I remember hearing about the main fort st branch closing [[not sure if it did) but its especially bad if that one is closed along with the rencen location. Please tell me there's a post office somewhere downtown still.

Obviously I understand having to trim costs but to have no post office for either greater downtown or southwest?! Doesn't seem to make sense.

[jcole]

They are possible closings according to the above link; it's not carved in stone

From the USPS site:

To that end, the U.S. Postal Service announced today that it will be taking the next step in right-sizing its expansive retail network by conducting studies of approximately 3,700 retail offices to determine customer needs. As part of this effort, the Postal Service also introduced a retail-replacement option for affected communities around the nation.....
“The Postal Service of the future will be smaller, leaner and more competitive and it will continue to drive commerce, serve communities and deliver value,” Donahoe added.
The list of offices being studied and additional information, including video, audio soundbites, b-roll and JPEGs, can be found at http://about.usps.com/news/electroni...ss/welcome.htm.

[313WX]

Great, more empty buildings to deal with, more unemployed middle class...

I hope UPS is hiring

i doubt many of them lose their jobs. Post Office workers have a no-layoff clause. Most of them will likely be transferred to other branches.

[Rocko]

As was already said, this is only a list of proposed closures.....meaning it is very very very unlikely all would come to pass. Still, hypothetically, if all of these did close, which Post Offices would still be open in the city? Many many things can prevent a post office from closing, from community meetings and input to the historical value of the building itself to special services that station might offer.

I'm also surprised that both Springwells and Livernois are up for closure, as that would leave southwest - with a growing population and what would seem like a steady stream of higher-priced letters and packages going to and from Mexico - without a local station.

Someone wondered about the customer service station at the Main PO on West Fort. Still open as far as I know, and rightly so. It IS distressing to see METROPLEX, MI postmarked on envelopes nowadays instead of DETROIT or the local individual communities. Out here in Connecticut, where I currently reside, I'm using the local post office nearly once a week. Most mail sorting in this area is handled through SOUTHERN, CT, which is similar to the Metroplex. Hell, you can hardly find a postmark with a circular cancellation anymore!

It would be sad to see any post office close in Detroit, and yet a few already have and I'm sure a few more will. The USPS does not receive any direct federal earmarks or funding.....all their operations are funded through the sales of stamps and other postage. I support the post office by buying stamps and sending packages, and by visiting local [[real) post offices to increase sales and revenues at these stations.

Maybe if we all sent a couple Detroit postcards to our friends we can undo some of the damage.....

[rjlj]

Perfect, a nice new ruin porn list already established.

Several post offices are slated to close; including the one in the Ren Cen. Check out the list:

Phoenix, Pontiac
Ferndale
Kensington, Detroit
Livernois, Detroit
Reniassance Center, Detroit
Springwells, Detroit
Brightmoor, Detroit
Fenkell, Detroit
Highland Park
Joyfield, Detroit
Northwestern, Detroit
Seven Oaks Station, Detroit
Strathmoor, Detroit

SLIGHTLY more info at: http://www.clickondetroit.com/money/...52/detail.html

[internet_pseudopod]

It's best to just prepare for a future without the USPS. You can't close enough post offices to make the post office solvent yet have it remain a viable and visible entity, especially when you are just shuttering buildings and not laying off workers or finding new sources of revenue. From what I understand the Post office's current problems stem not from over capacity but from the way they are forced to account for heath care costs. It seems the privatizers have gotten their hooks in and wont let go until the USPS is gone.

[oldredfordette]

We have the cheapest and most efficient postal service in the world. Nowhere else can you get a letter mailed across the country in two days, in some cases, overnight, for under .50 - try doing that in Canada. The problem isn't health care costs, the problem is the vandals are being let in, bit by bit.

[Wingnatic]

I'm surprised Center Line isn't on the list [[yet) . The carriers that deliver the mail here come from the much larger Warren PO not more than a mile and a half away .

[professorscott]

We have the cheapest and most efficient postal service in the world. Nowhere else can you get a letter mailed across the country in two days, in some cases, overnight, for under .50 - try doing that in Canada. The problem isn't health care costs, the problem is the vandals are being let in, bit by bit.

Oh, get real. The problem is that people are mailing less and less. I do most of my bills on line now, and I can't remember the last time I sent or received a letter. The Internet is killing traditional mail service, all over the world.

I think what the USPS will do to survive, in what ever form survival is possible, is to rely more and more on privately-owned retail storefronts handling customer mail. For instance in downtown Port Huron, when the post office relocated to PH Township, the Kerr Albert office-supply store put in a mail-handling service, so you can buy stamps, mail things etc.

But the old-style Post Office, where every hamlet had a post office staffed by postal workers, is going away.

[internet_pseudopod]

Oh, get real. The problem is that people are mailing less and less. I do most of my bills on line now, and I can't remember the last time I sent or received a letter. The Internet is killing traditional mail service, all over the world.

I think what the USPS will do to survive, in what ever form survival is possible, is to rely more and more on privately-owned retail storefronts handling customer mail. For instance in downtown Port Huron, when the post office relocated to PH Township, the Kerr Albert office-supply store put in a mail-handling service, so you can buy stamps, mail things etc.

But the old-style Post Office, where every hamlet had a post office staffed by postal workers, is going away.

The reality is that the USPS is shrinking when it should be competing. They need to find out why they aren't making inroads into delivery with large internet retailers like Amazon.com and correct the problem. Perhaps they should compete with FexEd stores and UPS stores by offering copying and printing services and signing for packages from other carriers. They aren't going to cut their way to prosperity in the face of declining traditional business.

[Wingnatic]

They could compete with UPS/FedEx except their incompetant .Getting an overnight letter/package from the USPS is like pissing in the wind . Even 2nd 3rd day is a crapshoot at best . UPS/FedEx can't possibly have enough aircraft to handle all their packages/letters . Its a pretty common practice to use commercial aircraft , often the same flights for airmail , so why can't the USPS do the same if they can't handle the services people pay for like next day/second day . I had a next day arrive once in 5 days lol
Before I recently retired I had done shipping and rec. for 30 years and avoided the USPS like the plague

[ndavies]

USPS uses commercial airlines to get stuff to places overnight. I don't belived the USPS has any airplanes themselves.

FedEx does have enough airplanes to handle all their packages. Their entire business model is based on their large airplane fleet. Their planes in the US fly to their large sorting facility in Memphis every night. They unpack and repack every plane overnight. That's how they can do overnight delivery to every part of the continental US.

[Autoracks]

Just more middle income jobs is all. Jobs that didn't require terribly technical skills in really any capacity but still enabled the postal worker to ya kno... have a car, pay a mortgage, perhaps the occasional vacation, food on the table. Its the same old story. Same with the auto plant jobs. Payed/pay really good if you can stand the monotony of it all. But a guy making 65K a year lifting and assembling for 15 years loses his job and isnt really qualified to do much else.

[Rocko]

SWMAP, I've been in the Springwells station twice in the past two weeks and not only did the facility seem to be in decent shape, but I had two different employees and each seemed very helpful. Maybe it's just cuz they know they're on the chopping block. What was so bad about it in your experience? It seems like a busy little place that is an important piece in the Vernor-Springwells community. I've found the facility to not only be in better shape, but the employees to be more friendly there than at the Livernois station [[at Michigan), which is one of those places I try to avoid at all costs. If I have a reason to be in the neighborhood, however, I've received the best postal experiences in Detroit at the Jefferson Station, not too far east Pewabic in a beautiful Art Deco 1939 postal building. Well maintained, friendly staff, beautiful building. I'm glad that station is not on the chopping block this time.

The community meeting for public comment about the closure of the Springwells station is set for Thursday, Sept 29 from 6:00-8:00pm at Paul the Apostle Lutheran Church at 1721 Springwells, for anyone who would like to attend and show their support for this station remaining open.

According to a lengthy article in today's Detroit News, the USPS is also looking at closing the mail sorting facility within the George W. Young main post office, leaving only the retail station and offices in the building. Several other mail processing facilities may also be closed.

[Ravine]

The USPS lies as a matter of policy. They may close some facilities, and they may not, but no words that come out of the HMF'sIC are worth a goddam cigarette butt. They want the public to be outraged so that outraged public will go screaming to their Congressional reps, with the desired result being those reps giving in to the USPS' anguished pleas. The USPS spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on automated sorting machines that are in use for only a few hours per day, and if that's not sad enough, when the machines are up & running, the back ends of them are frequently manned by clerks-- the same clerks whose jobs were eliminated by them-- hand-checking the "sorted" mail because the automated sorting machines do such a shitty job of sorting it.
But you didn't hear that from me, goddamit.

[JBMcB]

The USPS is having their lunch handed to them by UPS and FedEx. Parcel delivery is where the real money is. Even with monopoly pricing and delivery rules on letters the USPS can't compete. If post workers really have a no-layoff clause, the post office is screwed. Their only recourse is to jack up rates which would increase pressure on everyone to move to electronic delivery, and their revenues would fall even further.

[Ravine]

The USPS is having their lunch handed to them by UPS and FedEx. Parcel delivery is where the real money is. Even with monopoly pricing and delivery rules on letters the USPS can't compete. If post workers really have a no-layoff clause, the post office is screwed. Their only recourse is to jack up rates which would increase pressure on everyone to move to electronic delivery, and their revenues would fall even further.

How nice, of USPS management, to weigh in on the topic.