USPS closing main Detroit PO on Fort Street?

[Rocko]

I was just reading this article from the Wall Street Journal about the USPS closing several hundred stations - many rural, but some urban and suburban too. I went to look over the listing provided, and one is listed as "General Post Office, Detroit, 48233." As far as I know, the Main PO [[George W. Young Building) is the only office in that zip code. What services/facilities are still in use at this building? Since they built the Metroplex way out in the boondocks, does any mail sorting [[or other mail handling for that matter) still take place on Fort Street?

Side note, I knew these already, but these other Detroit offices are scheduled to close:

Linwood Sta
Detroit
MI
48206
Penobscot Postal Store
Detroit
MI
48226
General Post Office
Detroit
MI
48233
Det Amc Finan
Detroit
MI
48242
Detroit Metropolitan Airport
Detroit
MI
48242

Here's the full article from the WSJ: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...352599050.html
And the current list of closures: http://online.wsj.com/public/resourc..._20110124.html

[Detroitnerd]

Yeah, as I remember it, local forces dictated that the GPO provided Detroiters with too many jobs. Those jobs belong in Oakland County, so they're moving it up to Pontiac.

[BrushStart]

Yeah, as I remember it, local forces dictated that the GPO provided Detroiters with too many jobs. Those jobs belong in Oakland County, so they're moving it up to Pontiac.

I'm sorry, but if that's true, that's ******. The main branch post office should be in Detroit, as it has always been. One time I had to mail an important letter after hours, and Detroit's main branch on Fort Street was the only PO open that could postmark a letter all the way until midnight.

[iheartthed]

Yeah, as I remember it, local forces dictated that the GPO provided Detroiters with too many jobs. Those jobs belong in Oakland County, so they're moving it up to Pontiac.

Yeah, to fairly represent the "Michigan Metroplex"... Hilarious.

[trotwood]

USPS closing main Detroit PO on Fort Street?</SPAN>

Main PO's address is 1401 West Fort Street
Detroit, MI 48216.
This isn't on the WJ's list

[Detroitnerd]

Yeah, to fairly represent the "Michigan Metroplex"... Hilarious.

What? You gotta problem with L. Brooks-style "regionalism"?

[Rocko]

This USPS White Pages page lists the 1401 Fort location as 48233. Could it be that just one portion of this building [[likely the retail outlet) is 48233 while the offices portion of the building itself is 48216?

http://usps.whitepages.com/post_office/48233

It would be a bummer if this closed. When I worked downtown, I used to stop here regularly to mail letters at the boxes on Fort, and when I had an item that needed specific postage or was oversize, I went inside.

Since they're also closing the PO facilities in the RenCen and Penobscot, if the one in the main PO closes, where else near downtown could one stop to send out packages, get postage, etc.?

[Russix]

I'm sorry, but if that's true, that's ******. The main branch post office should be in Detroit, as it has always been. One time I had to mail an important letter after hours, and Detroit's main branch on Fort Street was the only PO open that could postmark a letter all the way until midnight.

Use to be 24 hr too.

[Detroitnerd]

Up at Milwaukee off Woodward. Won't that be nice? The closest post office to downtown Detroit will be a small community post office two miles north of downtown. This can't be real ...

[MikeM]

Yeah, to fairly represent the "Michigan Metroplex"... Hilarious.

So how do you explain similar relocations around the country?

[rencense]

that sucks,

I do a lot of shipping through ebay and such and its important to have post office branches nearby. I certainly hope they would keep at least one in the immediate downtown for all the businesses and growing residential population. I understand the need to cut cuts but cmon they have to have ONE.

[Detroitnerd]

The only way to keep it our GPO would seem to be to raise holy hell with the USPS. Downtown Detroit needs 24-hour mail service, and a large sorting facility with the staff to handle April 15. They have their act together there, and will let you drive up and drop off your taxes until midnight on April 15 to keep Fort Street clear.

[fryar]

Just goes to show how upside down metro Detroit is.

[SWMAP]

"and will let you drive up and drop off your taxes until midnight on April 15 to keep Fort Street clear."

But new hours are posted on the front doors and they say the P.O. closes at 10:00 PM now.

[iheartthed]

So how do you explain similar relocations around the country?

I'm unaware of any other region in the country that uses a Metroplex postmark except Dallas which branded the term "Metroplex". And I certainly don't know of any region where the postmark was changed to de-emphasize the region's central city [[e.g. going from a "Detroit" postmark to "Michigan Metroplex"). I don't work for the post office, so I could very well be missing something. But a quick Google of Metroplex shows that Detroit... Er, "Michigan" is the only one.

[Detroitnerd]

So are they keeping the post office and moving the sorting facility?

[fryar]

Last year, not even the Capitol Hill PO was open till midnight/24 hours anymore, even on 4/15. I was told that was part of a national cost-cutting effort. I don't know if Detroit was different, but I doubt it.

The only late-night option, it seems, is to e-file, as the telephone extension filing system has been discontinued.

[Detroitnerd]

They were considering taking Hamtramck's post office away. We raised hell and they backed off.

[old guy]

They're doing this all over the country. I know they have to find ways to cut costs, but I'm kind of wondering if they're using this as a scare tactic to raise federal funding. It could be similar to the tactic of saying we can't raise the debt limit and we'll have to shut down the government. It never happens. [[Well, it did happen that one time for several days.) Public outrage goes a long way and is often used as a last resort.

[Rocko]

Sidenote: since we moved to the Metroplex for nearly all of SE Michigan's mail sorting, the postmark really sucks. Sometimes you can't even read it. It seems like not too long ago, most places at least still used a circular cancellation stamp that was legible. Now they just print letters and they look like shit. What's the point of the "happy holidays" cancellation for the holiday season or the various other ones they use when you can't even read them?

Cancellation note aside: I was down on vacation passing through the Cumberland Gap last year and we detoured out of the way to actually go to the little down of Cumberland Gap, TN, which has been completely bypassed by the highway. We dropped in a local antique store and found out from the shopkeep that the local postmaster would hand cancel postcards mailed from the Cumberland Gap PO if you buy your stamps there. Sure enough, we walked down the block and wrote ourselves postcards and had them hand canceled "Cumberland Gap, TN, USPS." Very cool and certainly not something you could do everywhere.

[fryar]

Naif that I am, I tried calling them, but no one answered.

Fun Fact: If you do a Google map search for 48216, the rumored main post office for Detroit, the street view at that location is of Honey Bee Market, which is apparently situated on a very well-kept street [[insider tip).

[drjeff]

Sidenote: since we moved to the Metroplex for nearly all of SE Michigan's mail sorting, the postmark really sucks. Sometimes you can't even read it. It seems like not too long ago, most places at least still used a circular cancellation stamp that was legible. Now they just print letters and they look like shit. What's the point of the "happy holidays" cancellation for the holiday season or the various other ones they use when you can't even read them?

Cancellation note aside: I was down on vacation passing through the Cumberland Gap last year and we detoured out of the way to actually go to the little down of Cumberland Gap, TN, which has been completely bypassed by the highway. We dropped in a local antique store and found out from the shopkeep that the local postmaster would hand cancel postcards mailed from the Cumberland Gap PO if you buy your stamps there. Sure enough, we walked down the block and wrote ourselves postcards and had them hand canceled "Cumberland Gap, TN, USPS." Very cool and certainly not something you could do everywhere.

I'm pretty sure you can do that in Hell, Michigan as well.

[Hermod]

Some of the large city post offices were located so as to be near the railroad station[[s) to facilitate interface with the RPO system. It would make sense now to locate them near the major airports for airmail and near the interstates for truck delivered mail.

The configurations of larger urban post offices may also be functionally obsolete with lack of semitrailer access to loading docks built for smaller box trucks, handing facilities spread over several floors, lack of space and power for automated sorting and cancellation, lack of employee and customer parking, etc.

[Detroitnerd]

The configurations of larger urban post offices may also be functionally obsolete with lack of semitrailer access to loading docks built for smaller box trucks, handing facilities spread over several floors, lack of space and power for automated sorting and cancellation, lack of employee and customer parking, etc.

Downtown's GPO had all of that already. Semitrailer access, ramps, plenty of employee parking, etc.

[Gistok]

Have either the Freep or News or Crains said anything yet??

It seems odd that if the main post office were to close that we haven't heard a peep from any of them...