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Letters, we get letters - just not through the Postal Service

By adamg on Thu, 09/12/2024 - 2:48pm

The Postman (1997) Carrier 18 | U.S Postal Service HD

Thank goodness for e-mail. A business owner on Hillside Street on Mission Hill just sent us the following note about the local mail catastrophe, full of mail piling up in a post office in heap after growing heap:

Mission Hill is one section of Boston that has not received any mail deliveries on over a month. The Post Office has explained there is no carrier for the area.

Mail gets sent to the Roxbury branch and is left piled up with no way to retrieve it. The workers at the branch say they simply cannot dig through the piles for you. No plan for anyone to get their mail.

I have a business to run and pay bills but I have no way to get them. Other folks rely on the mail for medicine deliveries. It’s bad.

He adds:

I stopped into the Roxbury branch to see if I could grab the mail there and the clerk did make an attempt to find it but came back and said there is simply too much mail piled up in the back. I asked her if I got a PO Box would the mail make it to my box and she said “probably not”.

The clerk said many routes are vacant and they are not expected to be filled anytime soon.

I typically get about 80-100 pieces of mail a month for my business including payments, insurance bills, utility bills…

How the hell do they expect folks to get their mail??

It’s bad.

Meanwhile, in Brighton, one resident reports and asks:

I hadn’t received any US mail for 2 weeks and filed an investigation. I received a response stating that, due to a sudden shortage of mail carriers, my neighborhoods mail delivery would continue to be significantly delayed. They then thanked me for agreeing to this (which I did not ever).

We are old folks and have a need for regular daily mail delivery. Never thought would be held responsible for orderly administration of the USPS.

Does anyone have any advice how to proceed and/or how to create greater visibility into this total failure of US mail service?

Neighborhoods: 
Brighton
Mission Hill
Topics: 
Business
Free tagging: 
USPS


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Comments

By anon on Thu, 09/12/2024 - 2:54pm.

He'll get right on it.

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Voting closed 39

By Username Unknown on Thu, 09/12/2024 - 3:22pm.

But he never got it...

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By anon on Thu, 09/12/2024 - 3:37pm.

As I understand it, he’s not able to fire Dejoy, a Dump appointee, so….

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By anon on Thu, 09/12/2024 - 11:10pm.

can get rid of the postmaster.
Many have.
Look up the history of postmasters and when they took over.
Always early into any given administration.
Biden chose not to use that power.
Harris may.

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By brianjdamico on Fri, 09/13/2024 - 9:34am.

Because you are wrong. Since 1971, the United States Postal Service has been an independent federal agency, not subject to the Presidential appointment process.

https://www.uspsoig.gov/focus-areas/did-you-know/how-postmaster-general-...

https://www.palmbeachpost.com/story/opinion/columns/2024/04/28/why-presi...

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2021/02/biden-cannot-fire-usps-louis...

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By Clay on Thu, 09/12/2024 - 5:44pm.

DeJoy is one of the many gifts Dirty Diaper Donnie left for us.
DeJoy was installed to damage our postal service.
Damage in the hopes of delaying vote by mail ballots so Spurious Bone Spurs could cheat to remain president.
Traitors going to traitor.

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By anon on Thu, 09/12/2024 - 3:07pm.

Seems federal mail delivery is an issue for our elected officials. It is an election year for Congresswoman Pressley.

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By Riptor on Thu, 09/12/2024 - 6:35pm.

This is genuinely the answer. this is very much within their remit and they are the correct folks to go to. if you are a Boston resident I highly recommend calling their offices. Normally I'd say write to them, but given the circumstances, yeesh

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By perruptor on Fri, 09/13/2024 - 12:36am.

Has been trying to get deJoy out for a year or more. He's kept in office because the postal commission won't vote him out. I don't know why.

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By lbb on Fri, 09/13/2024 - 9:02am.

It is an election year for Congresswoman Pressley.

Every even-numbered year is an election year for every member of the House. This is not hot flash news.

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By dd808 on Thu, 09/12/2024 - 3:08pm.

There's always work down at the Post Office.

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By Frelmont on Thu, 09/12/2024 - 3:18pm.

And money in the banana stand.

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By eddie van halen on Thu, 09/12/2024 - 4:03pm.

sitting on their rumps collecting public money.

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By anon on Thu, 09/12/2024 - 3:10pm.

letter carrier from Allston. In 2020, because of a major structural breach in the foundation of the building, the PO was shut down and carriers get their mail at the main sorting facility at Fort Point. Undeliverable packages and the like go to Brighton for collection.
I retired in April of 2022 and can tell you that, even under the circumstances, the mail for Allston got delivered as smoothly as normally. That was 2022.
I don't know if things have gone downhill with that delivery unit. Allston residents would have to chime in.
I can tell you that the volume of First Class letter mail is down but bulk mail and, especially now, political mailings are up as well as packages.
It's difficult, but at least during my time, we got it done.
If mail is piling up at the station and just plain not being delivered, that's a shame.
I'm glad to be out. I served Allston well for 34 years, but I don't miss it.
Good luck, everybody.

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By Frelmont on Thu, 09/12/2024 - 3:26pm.

Thank you for your service to the country. Big tech can never replace boots on the ground. I mean they can, but we’re worse-off for it. Life can be inefficient and a working postal system will get us through hard times in a way Amazon can’t and won’t.

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By Frelmont on Thu, 09/12/2024 - 3:22pm.

The ‘Postman’ De Joy ain’t. Someone should shake their fist and spit in that someone’s eye (metapheuphorically speaking.)

Ok, now I have a movie to watch!

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By anon on Thu, 09/12/2024 - 4:38pm.

Every change in the Oval Office allows for the new president to call on the Postal Board of Governors to elect a new Postmaster General, upon the president's recommendation.
DeJoy was obviously Trump's appointment. Biden should've moved to replace him.
Maybe Harris will.

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By mg on Thu, 09/12/2024 - 3:32pm.

Horrible

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By Don't Panic on Fri, 09/13/2024 - 1:38am.

Thanks Trump. /s

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By c1josh on Thu, 09/12/2024 - 4:35pm.

We were wondering why our mailbox was empty for the last few days...

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By Rob on Thu, 09/12/2024 - 7:19pm.

Does anyone have any advice how to proceed and/or how to create greater visibility into this total failure of US mail service?

Unfortunately, firing the Postmaster General is not quite an option. Would that it were... The Trump touch, again.

Mission Hill is one section of Boston that has not received any mail deliveries on over a month. The Post Office has explained there is no carrier for the area.

Mail gets sent to the Roxbury branch and is left piled up with no way to retrieve it.

"...gets sent to the Roxbury branch and is left..." Is the 'Roxbury branch' the post office from which letter carriers for that part of Mission Hill are normally dispatched, or is it the place to which undelivered mail gets shunted?
...and what is 'Roxbury Branch', anyway? Dudley Square post office - some delivery comes from there, or the location between Codman Square and Peabody Square?

I ask that last because this is NOTHING new.
I'm in Upham's Corner. Our delivery comes from Dudley - if it comes. We've been dealing with problems for months.
Out of the six normal delivery days of the week, we usually only get delivery four or five. Sometimes only three.
It's not just one local delivery center in an urban neighborhood not being able to fill routes.
It's a regional/national/systemic problem, including the relay centers. We've had stretches of bad delays - 3 weeks for a card to arrive from Bridgeport CT, 2 weeks for a check to arrive from Concord MA - this past March/April was horrific.

We've gone to Dudley as individuals, as groups of neighbors, spoken with supervisors there, filed online report forms (that eventually get some response, though not always improvement).
I get the delivery expectation scans of some mail pieces via email.
I no longer have confidence that everything will get here or even that I will know what's missing.

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By Username Unknown on Thu, 09/12/2024 - 9:16pm.

What you call the Dudley Post Office is actually the Roxbury PO. This is the branch that delivers mail to Mission Hill. Mail for zips 02118, 02119, 02120 and 02125 gets delivered from the Roxbury/Dudley location.

Vacant routes have to be covered by sub carriers, or route carriers on OT after they finish their own routes, or not at all, as is the current case in Roxbury.

The Post Office is an absolute shit show.

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By scollaysq on Thu, 09/12/2024 - 8:20pm.

His hearings with deJoy in the hot seat are awesome (a joy!) to watch. I hope Ossoff runs for President in my lifetime.

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By Waquiot on Thu, 09/12/2024 - 9:42pm.

It’s just that our senators and Pressley don’t care.

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By lbb on Fri, 09/13/2024 - 9:09am.

This is a load of bullshit.

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By Rob on Fri, 09/13/2024 - 3:57am.

To expand on my and others' comments about the difficulty replacing DeJoy...

The USPS has (is supposed to have) an eleven-member board of governors, nine of whom are appointed by POTUS. Ordinary quorum is six.
Of the nine, no more than five can be of any one political party. The appointments are subject to Senate confirmation. The terms are seven years, staggered. There is some provision for appointments to continue serving for a limited time past the expiration of the term, pending replacement.

The nine Presidentially-appointed governors appoint and can dismiss the tenth member - Postmaster General. Those actions are not subject to Senate confirmation and the PG does not serve "at the pleasure of POTUS".
The governors and the PG elect the eleventh member - the Deputy Postmaster General.

The current composition? There are seven appointed Governors and two seats vacant.
Of the seven - two appointed by Trump (both Republican), five appointed by Biden (3 Democratic, 1 Republican, 1 Independent).

Interestingly, Biden has four nominations waiting for Senate approval. Two (both D) to fill empty seats. Two (both R) to replace expiring Trump appointments (one this December, one by December 2025).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Postmaster_General

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Board_of_Governors_of_the_United_States_Po...

https://about.usps.com/who/leadership/board-governors/

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By Rob on Fri, 09/13/2024 - 4:06pm.

So...

IF Senate confirmation of Postal Service Governors is simple majority and not some other rule like 60% or two-thirds or needing something similar to move it to floor vote...

WHY has the Democratic-majority Senate not moved on at least two of the four pending nominations? That would establish a quorum and a majority of Biden appointees that could dismiss DeJoy.

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By chaosjake on Sat, 09/14/2024 - 12:10am.

The clerk said many routes are vacant and they are not expected to be filled anytime soon.

So are they hiring? When I've looked in the past, it was essentially impossible to get a USPS job without an honorable discharge from the military and an existing civil service rating.

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