The Case of the Disappearing Mailboxes
Residents have slowly noticed the disappearance of area street mailboxes. The United States Postal Service is removing them due to changing demands.
The once ubiquitous blue United States Postal Service (USPS) mailboxes are becoming more of a rarity on D.C. street corners. Neighbors occasionally post to listservs bemoaning the loss of a local street mailbox. To date 194 blue collection boxes have been removed from District streets.
Though USPS did not provide information on where these boxes have been removed, Sharon Tennison, a spokesperson for USPS, said the 20007 ZIP Code has lost 12 regular collection boxes and one Express collection box. That same area once had a total of 109 boxes and now has 86 street mailboxes remaining.
Tennison did not answer Patch's question about the process by which mailboxes are selected for elimination.
"It is critical that we adjust our workforce to match America's changing communication trends as mail volume declines," said Postmaster General Patrick R. Donahoe on March 24, 2011 in a Postal News release.
The Postal Service lost $8.5 billion in 2010 and is projecting a $6.4 billion deficit in 2011.
Judith Bunnell
9:25 am on Friday, April 1, 2011
The mailbox on P and Wisconsin is gone! Just a sad little square outline and four screw holes left!
jnrentz1
6:47 am on Saturday, April 2, 2011
Maybe the home and office computer can somehow help to take their place.
J. Jameson
9:00 am on Saturday, April 2, 2011
Sirs, I am in Denver Colorado and mailboxes are disappearing from ALL residential areas. The question was put to the local ostmaster and she said it was because it took too long for the carrier to empty them and was not cost effective. As I understand it, the blue boxes are either being warehoused or sold as scrap.
What is going with a company that takes it's revenue receptacles out making it jarder for it's customers to use the mail????