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]
The one closest to my apartment, the Bushwick P.O. is about as bad as any others mentioned.
However, the Williamsburg P.O. isn’t bad. It’s one of a few in NYC where you can be in and out in under fifteen minutes.
I will also sometimes take the train over to the main P.O., which is open 24 hours.
I live in Murray Hill and work near Wall Street, and both of those post offices are decent enough for picking up packages, as well as delivering 1st class mail.
I still refuse to wait in line to mail packages tho. That’s why I love the newish machines that let you buy exact postage.
The Brooklyn postal system is underfunded to make up for losses elsewhere. Got to a rural area — no lines, no waiting.
Postal employment is down hugely over the years, largely because of the use of automatic sorting machines. But they don’t always work, and the mail is continually delivered to the wrong address. It is now common for us to now get our mail. That never happened until perhaps a decade ago. Ever.
Meanwhile, I haven’t mailed a letter from Brooklyn since some invitations to a party I sent back in the 1980s were never received. It turns out employees at 9th Street were thowing away mail so it wouldn’t have to be sorted. I mail from Manhattan instead.
It’s not email, it’s the staff an poor management. Many are lazy and could care less aboutdoing their jobs properly or with any sense of self respect. The Adelphi Station on Fulton Street in Clinton Hill is especially bad.
I heard it sucks because its full of people like 10.05 and 10.26 who put up with mediocrity and crap, and keep dutifully quiet.
I heard that urban post offices suck hard because of e-mail and the fact that people don’t use stamps any more, so revenue is down. So the post office cuts where they can, and they can’t cut service in more outlying areas. Don’t know if that’s true or not, but it seems plausible.
The Clinton Hill (Adelphi) PO is bad also for outrageously long lines at any time, but people deal and move on.
I have been dissatisfied with my own local post office(Times Plaza) for some years. The only salvation was our regular postman Stanley who unfortunately retired. When I order anything by mail I know opt for an additional expense and request UPS or even FedEx. I think that privatizing the postal system may be the answer. Perhaps the rates will be higher but the service has got to be better.
The Bay Ridge post office on 5th around 88th street sucks as well.
HUGE lines always and the postal workers apparently do not know how to ring the door bell. Every time I have had a package out for delivery, the bell never rings and then sometime later I find a note that I have to go pick it up. They close so early (5PM I think) on weekdays I can only pick them up Saturday mornings. It literally takes hours since the line is so long, all the way to the door, and as the original post says, it takes them forver to get each package.
I never use the post office anyway, I always ship UPS now or else it costs me almost my entire Saturday morning.