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That would work if towns, customers and
communities were set distances from each other.
There is also the issue of population density that varies from point-to-point.
This is related to what Poncho_NM is sayinjg.
There is a PO at 5th and Gold. There is also one on San Antonio.
The PO at 5th and Gold is reachable on just about every bus line,
but parking is terrible. The PO on San Antonio has great parking,
but the amount of people that are located within a coupld of miles
of the San Antonio office is much smaller than for the downtown PO.
Who's to say which one is more convenient for the most people?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Zoidberg
I think many of the post offices in the prime locations may lease, rather
than own, the space. In that case, there is no big money to realize.
Well then, if they DO own it, then they can sell.
That office has been there, I assume, since that location was the edge of town.
I'm betting that 0.8 acres I mentioned is owned.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cathy4017
... rant ...
No one can rant like Cathy4017. --- Mind if I add to the rant?
( I can rant, but am but a miserable piker by comparison. )
The Washington Times reported that Postmaster General John E. Potter had received
nearly 40 % in pay raises since 2006 and about $135,000 in incentive bonuses last year.
For fiscal 2008, including increases to the value of his two pensions, Mr. Potter’s entire
compensation package totaled more than $800,000, according to PS financial records.
[ Postmaster’s pay to be probed ]
It's Smoke and Mirrors. They will pontificate and get publicity to prove they are "doing
their job" and nothing will change at all ( and Cathy4017 still won't get her mail ).
LOL!! I operated at a slow burn there for awhile....
That is just OUTRAGEOUS on the salary/compensation. I wrote them an email back after all that garbage...and told them they well deserved to lose business and go broke after that kind of non-service.
It probably wasn't even read, but it was nice to get it off my chest....I finally did get my mail, and what very few pieces are left are getting forwarded....even the advertisements from Skier's Edge and such!
Many of the post offices that end up closing in these small towns will end up staying in the same town...just being operated by the local gas station or convenience store....most people will still have an office in their town.
I've worked at the PO and have a few family members who do or have worked there as well.
There are plenty of people there who, between overtime and especially through union grievances, make 90-100k a year (their salary is 50-60k). There are supervisors there who spend plenty of time playing solitaire on the computer and don't do squat to supervise the employees. The employees know what needs to be done every night and the good ones do it without being told to do it. Any of them who need to be babysat because they drift to the break room to play cards constantly should not be employed. They could cut a few supervisor positions.
I think getting rid of Saturday delivery isn't a bad idea. If something needs delivery on a Saturday it can be sent express, just like things that get delivered on a Sunday get sent.
There shouldn't be a post office within 10 miles of another post office. I drove with my husband from Alamogordo to Roswell and counted about 5 post offices within about 30 minutes. That is so unnecessary. If you are going to live out in the middle of nowhere then don't complain about driving 30 minutes to get to the nearest post office.
The LLV's that the post office drives (long life vehicle) are pieces of junk. There are constantly problems with them and between gas and cost of repair it would be very much worth the post offices while to invest in replacing all of the vehicles they have with either a Chevy Volt or a Nissan Leaf or similar. Strike a deal with the company - it's good advertising for them to be seen everyday all over town being used by the USPS and the cost of the vehicles will be made up for in less than a year, I'm guessing, by what you save in fuel and maintenance.
And what would be wrong with jacking the price of stamps to 1$? I know people would be in outrage, but think about it... is ONE STUPID DOLLAR so expensive? That letter is getting across the country in as little as one day! That's incredible! The price of stamps has not risen nearly as consistently as every other product we have in our world. In 1847 the first national stamp was issued at 5 cents! That means that in 164 years the price of stamps has risen a whopping 40 cents!!! WOW!!! Since I started driving about 10 years ago the price of gas has risen more than 2 dollars a gallon! Think of how much gas the post office uses every single day! The price of stamps hardly reflects the impact and cost of gas for delivering all those letters! I read in a recent USPS newsletter about a guy who has been delivering mail on a bike for a very very long time. Why don't they use more bikes?
I enjoyed working at USPS (other than 99% of the people and the aggravation of how poorly it's run) and my husband enjoys working there now. They certainly need to work on some improvements because they are simply hemorrhaging money.
When I lived across the street from the post office just S of Central
on Cornell ( near the Frontier ) I found it annoying that if I ever got
a package, I had to get to the "real" post office to get it.
It seems that post offices located in prime locations like that should
close and sell the property for big money and use that money to
keep some of those rural post offices open - at least a couple days
a week. There could be rotating staff ...
BTW - the majority of rural post offices RENT - not own.
BTW - the majority of rural post offices RENT - not own.
That's what Zoidberg was saying for PO's in general. I assume that's correct.
I would also assume that almost no rural locations are PRIME real estate.
The PO I cite would probably be about the most valuable 0.8 acres in town. If they own
it, it should be sold sold SOLD. If they are leasing it, and have some sort of 1st dibs
on the spot, then the rights to that least should be sold. This goes for any other
location they are leasing where they are getting it below market value. If I owned that
property and was being forced to lease it for a pittance, then a deal could be struck.
Unfortunately, the top brass is just raking it in for doing nothing, thinking "outside
the box like that isn't likely to happen. It will need to be forced on them.
Own or rent, the principle is the same and PO's in prime locations need to move.
BTW - such land deals apply for many many federal agencies and property.
Our whole system of military bases around the world is basically based on
WWII strategy - let alone more "advanced" Cold War strategy.
I wouldn't be surprised if the US government is sitting on trillions in property assets
that do the taxpayer absolutely no good. The USPS is just one piece of that empire.
If a PO can be moved a few blocks or closed for a big payoff, it should be done.
Master-ranter Cathy4017 has, I think, mentioned this before ... I think.
Now that their ( Feds ) back is to the wall, some of this might happen.
Out of all of the proposed closings the one that gets me the most is the Downtown Station. Probably because it's the only one out of all of the ones proposed for closure that I use. But also because it's located in a federal building in a space that was always designed to be a post office. Other than the staffing costs (and they aren't going to layoff the people who work there anyway, are they?), how much is it really taking to run that place? Or does the USPS have to pay rent to the GSA in that location? Perhaps parking is an issue there, but I think the vast majority of the people who use it are those, like me, who already are downtown for other reasons or who live within walking distance of it.
But I guess I can trust that the Postal Service knows what they are doing in identifying locations for closure, so I won't get that bent out of shape if the Downtown Station does close.
I also support eventually moving to delivery only three times a week and even raising the first-class stamp price substantially. A dollar I think would grate at people too much, so perhaps 99 cents would be better for at least a decade or so to give people time to become more accustomed to the idea of paying more than a dollar for a stamp.
Maybe we should realice that the Postal Service is just that - a service. It was never meant to earn any money but only cover costs. The current system should return to the Federal system and these quasi private salaries eliminated. Eliminating Post Offices is absurd because they can and do define small towns. We need more, not less. We could pay for an expanded system by charging UPS rates for everything but First Class.
Maybe we should realice that the Postal Service is just that - a service. It was never meant to earn any money but only cover costs. The current system should return to the Federal system and these quasi private salaries eliminated. Eliminating Post Offices is absurd because they can and do define small towns. We need more, not less. We could pay for an expanded system by charging UPS rates for everything but First Class.
Well, last year (2010) the U.S. Postal Service lost 8,500,000,000 dollars even after cutting over 100,000 jobs. It is not earning money, it is losing money, losing more money every year. Mail volume has been declining. I do not see how going back to the "Federal system" will fix anything and expanding the U.S. Postal Service is certainly not going to fix the problem...
One thing about increasing postage charges, the fees are already well within the range that encourages people to find other means, principally by converting financial communications to online statements and using your bank's online payment system to pay your bills. I've done that and I have virtually no use for the USPS.
We need to face up to the fact that USPS as we know it now is a dead horse and it's time to quit beating it. I think we should cast it loose as an independent corporation and remove the government from operating or funding USPS. Private enterprise and the need to sustain a profit will cause the USPS to adjust to the market demand.
In that scenario I see the USPS as on a par with UPS, FedEx and the other companies in that business. If first class stamps need to be $1 each then so be it. I'm pretty sure that would cause virtually everybody with a computer and Internet access to switch to electronic delivery.
Let's kill electrons, not trees!
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