'A brief reprieve'
NAACP chief says timing of meeting on local post offices could not be worse
By André Coleman 12/22/2011
A moratorium established by Congress and the US Postal Service would prevent the closure of 3,700 post offices — including three local centers — at least until next May.
The Postal Service currently plans to shutter the Mack Robinson Post Office on Lincoln Avenue, the Orangewood postal facility located in the shopping center on California Boulevard near Pasadena Avenue and the Altadena Post Office on North Lake Avenue by the end of this year. The closures would eliminate 190 positions. Many of the parcel drop boxes in Northwest Pasadena and Altadena have been removed in the last decade.
“While it is a brief reprieve, it does not speak to what they have already decided to do,” NAACP Pasadena Branch President and former postal worker Joe Brown told the Weekly. “It doesn’t prevent them from continuing to do feasibility studies. They are still holding meetings to announce plans to close local facilities. The moratorium doesn’t stop that.”
One such meeting will be held at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 29 at the Pasadena Convention Center, 300 E. Green St., Pasadena. Brown told the Weekly he thinks postal officials intentionally planned the meeting at that time because there would be little parking available due to the Rose Parade, which will be held the following Monday, Jan. 2.
Pleas by local officials to get the Postal Service to delay the meeting until January have fallen on deaf ears, according to Brown.
“The timing is bad, and the location is bad,” Brown said. “I think they could have at least waited until after the holidays to have this meeting. They are hosting it in one of the largest facilities in town with no place to park. We begged and pleaded with the postal officials and [Mayor] Bill Bogaard, but they are going to move forward. People won’t be able to get downtown, because the city is going to be too crowded. Maybe 20 or 30 people will show up. This is really bad.”
The Postal Service is currently facing a $10-billion deficit, due to a decrease in mail and the rise of Internet options, such as online bill payment and email. In the past five years, mail volume has decreased by 43 billion pieces.
The Postal Service has already asked Congress to approve the layoffs of 100,000 employees and cut back delivery service to five days a week.
DIGG | del.icio.us | REDDIT