A Drive to Replace the Boerum Hill Post Office
Misdelivered mail? Undelivered packages? Terrible long lines? Tell us about your experiences and help us replace Times Plaza with a real post office! So goes the language on the Boerum Hill Association’s website about the Times Plaza Post Office on 3rd and Atlantic. The group is conducting a survey about the post office (which also…
Misdelivered mail? Undelivered packages? Terrible long lines? Tell us about your experiences and help us replace Times Plaza with a real post office! So goes the language on the Boerum Hill Association‘s website about the Times Plaza Post Office on 3rd and Atlantic. The group is conducting a survey about the post office (which also serves parts of the North Slope) because, as the Brooklyn Eagle reported, they feel The facility was outgrown decades ago, but because USPS only rents the space, they cannot make the changes necessary to run it efficiently. Continued neighborhood growth, plus Atlantic Yards, will only make the situation worse. Gowanus Lounge has posted complaints about the post office on several occasions, and we’ve witnessed the crapola service at the facility firsthand more than once (including a memorable occasion last year when the surly staff made someone cry). Residents of the 11217 Zip code can vent here.
Replace Times Plaza — With a ‘Real’ Post Office [Brooklyn Eagle] GMAP
BHA Wants Times Plaza Post Office Replaced [GL]
I’ve found the people working there to be pretty reasonable, helpful, and hard working. While I’m sure they deserve some of the stereotypes, I think it is a supply and demand problem. That being said, a bigger, less dumpy space would be a big improvement.
And I agree, going there anywhere near the first of the month–with the influx of money orders–only adds to the otherwise long wait.
USPS was reformed to make it more like ‘private’ business years ago – which is example of how privatizing sucks. They have to be self-supporting but still required to provide services even the ones that loose money — while all the for-profits take the profitable business parts away. Now if FEdEx, UPS, etc had to provide all the non-profit making services – you’d see their service deteriorate.
According to About.com
No, it’s a business!
the Postal Service takes on some several very non-governmental attributes via the powers granted to it under Title 39, Section 401, which include:
* power to sue (and be sued) under its own name
* power to adopt, amend and repeal its own regulations
* power to “enter into and perform contracts, execute instruments, and determine the character of, and necessity for, its expenditures”
* power to buy, sell and lease private property
* power to build, operate, lease and maintain buildings and facilities
All of which are typical functions and powers of a private business. However, unlike other private businesses, the Postal Service is exempt from paying federal taxes. USPS can borrow money at discounted rates, and can condemn and acquire private property under governmental rights of eminent domain.
The crap service you describe isn’t restricted to just the Boerum Hill PO. A new post office building won’t help what is an ingrained problem in that workforce. Long live the self-service machines!
Can’t agree more that this whole facility should be abandoned. I’d even go to Ratner’s Atlantic Center space for an improved Post Office. PLUS, can they ever learn to separate the lines for money orders from the lines for stamps?
been there once.
it sucked
I experienced a lost bill at least once a month. I finally got tired of phone calls to the P.O and the company’s responsible for sending me the statements. I now pay all my bills on line and have email alerts when my bills are due. The shortest time I have ever waited on line at the P.O. was a half hour. Usual wait time is 45 minutes. They should privitize the Postal Service.
Off topic, for those that clamor for universal health care by the US Government, the US Postal Service should be a good barometer for how that will work.
that place sucks but what do you expect–bureaucracy at its best
One of the most baffling peculiarities of NYC life – why do all the post offices suck? Go to any suburb or any other city and you have large renovated or recently built buildings. Lines that are a fraction of what we have here, and the layout makes sense. On top of that, all the postal carriers have trucks! So where does all the money go? The per capita expenditures of the USPS on NYC has to be significantly less or its going in someone’s pocket.