Walk for your U.S. Mail?
CLUSTER MAILBOXES, about eight times as many as shown here, would be needed for Park La Brea townhouse residents.
What’s next for residents in single-family homes, duplexes, triplexes and townhouses in our local communities? Walk two blocks to a “cluster mailbox” on a street corner…instead of having your mail put in your mail slot or your mail box at your residence with its individual street address?
Problems for Park La Brea
What the U.S. Postal Service’s local leaders are proposing for the historic and individually-addressed townhouse garden apartments at Park La Brea — if implemented — might also come to homes in Miracle Mile North, Hancock Park, Fremont Place, St. Andrews Square, and all the other historic local residential neighborhood served by this newspaper.
Since the first lease was signed in 1943, one of the selling points for potential tenants of the Park La Brea garden apartments (1449 single-family, two-story townhouse residences) has been their individual street addresses, with U.S. Mail slots in their front doors.
Cutting mail carrier jobs
To eliminate some or most of the jobs of six full-time mail carriers, the local Postal Service leadership recently proposed that the residents of these 1449 individually-addressed townhouses should walk or drive each day, sometimes three or more blocks, to access 1449 new “cluster mailboxes” to be positioned all around Alandele Circle in the heart of the Park La Brea townhouse garden apartments area.
Street hazards
Imagine the traffic jam every day (except Sunday, and maybe, someday, Saturday). Think of the inconvenience, especially for older residents who maintain their tenancies (many for 20 years and longer) at Park La Brea partly because of the convenience of the single-family home nature of their historic townhouses.
Even worse, think of the increased traffic’s added danger to children coming and going from the common play area in the center of the Circle.
Apparently, the local USPS leaders have expressed a willingness to compromise a bit — by shortening the required walk to about one block or less — by placing the “cluster mailboxes” in the townhouse parking areas or next to the garbage bins there. (Residents already report the recent loss of a couple of scarce parking spaces in each of the townhouse parking areas — for the new and badly-managed “RecycLA” monopoly trash pick-up system. But that is another story.)
As goes Park La Brea . . .
DAILY DESTINATION, on your block, could be a cluster mailbox like this, instead of your front door.
What is the difference between Park La Brea’s 500 S. block of Sierra Bonita Avenue and the 500 N. block, north of Beverly Boulevard? What are the differences among the 300 S. block of Hudson Avenue in Hancock Park…or the 300 S. block of Irving Boulevard in Windsor Square — and the 300 S. block of Genesee Avenue within Park La Brea? Nothing.
All of those historic Los Angeles blocks have individually-addressed single-family residences, some as townhouses, and some on individual lots.
It seems that Los Angeles Post Office leaders soon may want to reduce the number of mail carrier jobs on all individually-addressed residential streets.
Or…maybe the Post Office actually just wants to help our physiques by requiring us to walk a block or more to get our mail!
Call Congress?
If you think this is taking the “service” out of the U.S. Postal Service, then contact your U.S. Representative in Congress.
For these individually-addressed residential areas, Rep. Ted Lieu represents Park La Brea and west of Larchmont generally. He has colleagues in Washington: Jimmy Gomez (east of Larchmont generally), Adam Schiff (north of Rosewood generally) and Karen Bass (south of Wilshire generally).
Don’t be surprised if their staffs give you a do-nothing reply saying that the elected representatives in Washington cannot do anything because “USPS is an independent agency.”
But surely, telephone calls from Reps. Lieu, Gomez, Schiff and Bass — to Postmaster General Megan J. Brennan of that independent agency — will have more impact than one of us local residents trying to get through to Ms. Brennan.
This reduction of direct-to-door delivery is a national issue, not just one for Park La Brea and surrounding communities. It even was an issue in Canada. Read this report if you want to start researching more information: savethepostoffice.com/canada-gets-cluster-boxed-why-it-cant-happen-here.
To share with your representative your concern about Park La Brea’s townhouses losing direct-to-door U.S. Mail delivery — and your own single-family residence possibly losing direct-to-door delivery next — I suggest you skip the U.S. Mail and use a telephone to contact Congressional staff members at their local offices:
Ted Lieu: 323-651-1040
Jimmy Gomez: 213-481-1425
Adam Schiff: 323-315-5555
Karen Bass: 323-965-1422
Here is a chance for Congressman Lieu and his colleagues to be heroes to local constituents…by keeping U.S. Mail delivery coming direct to the doors of our individually-addressed single-family homes, duplexes, triplexes and townhouses in the historic Mid-Wilshire parts of Los Angeles.
Call today to help our Park La Brea townhouse garden apartment neighbors…and to help ourselves.
Category: News
