Brooklyn Post Offices: Endless Bummer?
Is every single post office in Brooklyn a nightmare? Seems like it. There’s consistent bitching (that we hear, anyway) about three in particular. Here’s the latest on the most-loathed po’s: Kensington: Councilmember Bill De Blasio continues to work toward building a new post office for the neighborhood, which gained Internet fame via a You Tube…
Is every single post office in Brooklyn a nightmare? Seems like it. There’s consistent bitching (that we hear, anyway) about three in particular. Here’s the latest on the most-loathed po’s:
Kensington: Councilmember Bill De Blasio continues to work toward building a new post office for the neighborhood, which gained Internet fame via a You Tube vid last year. “We have been working closely with the Brooklyn Postmaster, Community Board 12 and the community,” says De Blasio. “There are still complaints regarding postal service in 11218 but I have also heard some positive feedback.We would love to see a new post office in the neighborhood or a commercial postal unit in one of the local retail stores. This community is growing at a rapid pace and business owners and residents at the very least deserve a functioning postal facility.”
Park Slope, 9th Street: The Brooklynian folks have a thread devoted to this place’s suckitude. Comments range from this observation, “The line to pick up a package that you missed because they can’t ring the correct bell is miles long. Usually 50 people waiting in the pick up line every weekend. Then it takes an average of 5-15 minutes for them to locate the package at the post office. How hard is it to have two people or more working the pick up line on Saturday’s.” to this one, “What do you expect from people who smoke too much crack (as i learned when i went to a party held by people who worked for the Brooklyn Post Office)?”
Boerum Hill, Atlantic near 4th Ave.: This is another neighborhood where there’s noise about replacing the post office. GL reported the latest complaints about the facility yesterday, with one person saying they “had a horrendous, Third World experience at the Times Plaza” and another writing, “I have never had a package or letter that needed to be signed for delivered by them!”
So. Are there any halfway decent post offices in this borough?
A Drive to Replace the Post Office [Brownstoner]
Return to the Times Plaza Post Office: Not Fixed [Gowanus Lounge]
9th St Post Office [Brooklynian]
“Yeah, it’s called a 401K with an employer contribution.”
A 401k is an retirement account based on the value of mutual funds and securities purchased in part (or wholly) through employee contributions. It’s value can easily decrease. A pension is post-retirement income source typically made in the form of a guaranteed annuity. As 2:21 intimated, in many respects, a pension is a far more secure post-retirement benefit than a 401K.
Yeah, it’s called a 401K with an employer contribution. There is a reason the term “Going Postal” was coined and 2:10 is only scratching the surface on the working environment there.
This is patently false: “The pensions of civilian municipal workers are not much better than what is recieved by those employed in the private sector”. Pensions barely exist in the private sector anymore. Do you have any idea what kind of portfolio you would have to hold to replicate a cop’s or a teacher’s pension?
It is easier to fire a city or Federal employee than you think and many of these jobs require employees to just fall in lock step. Independent thinking is discouraged and many of the working environments are hostile (welfare, jail, police, etc…) The pensions of civilian municipal workers are not much better than what is recieved by those employed in the private sector, must live in NYC where they can’t afford to buy homes and job security isn’t even any longer a given. Of course their salaries are not comparable to salaries of those performing similar jobs in the private sector. I guess we get what we pay for.
Do postal employees need the bulletproof shields that are installed in the Red Hook post office?
Renovating and updating could help alot with attitude. plus all those barriers slow down exchanges.
I swear I saw someone tryin gto mail three chickens and a goat “bok ohm” in the P.O. on Church and Bedford but the P.O. on East 16th and Newkirk is actually not bad.
12:31, you may be right. I am sure the USPS workers born here do not have any better command of the english language than do the foriegnors. They all speak english “goodly”. As for your “It’s a requirement” and “every postal worker I’ve ever encountered anywhere I have ever lived” facts, you are impressing the hell out me with your knowledge of governmental requirements and confirmation relating to their full compliance. You have now convinced me that they have full and adequate comprehension. It must be the buildings they work in instead.
A new building could help.
A lot of post offices are run down and dirty- that is going to effect the people working in them.
They need more automated tellers for the basic stuff, and they need better signage to teach people how to mail a package before they hold up a line with things they should have done before theu got to the teller.
My biggest problem is the mail delivery is unreliable- I get a lot of mail for other addresses and if you try to black it out and return to sender it it just comes back to you.
It can’t JUST be about unionized workers, because some of the Post Office Branches are quite efficient (at least in Manhattan.) And CERTAINLY in the suburbs.
It seems that each branch has its own “culture”. Some of the branches have management that is on the ball, and when there is a huge line forming, will send someone out to the line to make sure forms are filled out in advance, etc. They troubleshoot and deal with the chaos.
And you can’t ignore understaffing as a big contribution to the problem.
The one on East 14th Street is notorious. Lines of 50 people are not unusual and I suspect management is hiding in the back when there are near riots.
Carroll Gardens and Cobble don’t even have a satellite post office (except for one with limited hours on Columbia). This has been brought up for YEARS, but the USPS doesn’t want to spend money to open a real branch, and being a contract PO is not worth the trouble for stores.
One option is that now you can buy and print out postage online and request a pickup. This only works if you can be at home when they come by…but it IS kinda cool