Go Home Already: Shouts and Murmurs
Man Stops Traffic at 17th and K to Demand $200 Million
Morning Roundup: Goodbye, Abe Edition
Judge Throws Out WTU Suit Over Teacher Layoffs
Vegetate to Close at the End of the Month
Good morning, Washington, and a happy Friday to you. Before you start focusing on the weekend, we'd like you to take a moment and think long and hard about how you're responsible for one of today's most troubling headlines: at least 13 area post offices are slated to close (plus over 600 nationwide) under a cost cutting plan under consideration by the USPS. And yeah, we're pointing the finger at you, dear reader, and at ourselves and pretty much everyone else. None of us sends enough mail anymore, it turns out, so the post office is going bye-bye. I don't know about you, but about the only thing I send through the physical mail anymore are Netflix DVDs, so I'm clearly part of the problem. The Government Accountability Office recently added the Postal Service to its list of high-risk government agencies, and there had even been talk recently about getting rid of mail delivery on Saturdays. It seems pretty unlikely that America is suddenly going to suffer from snail mail nostalgia and start writing letters and mailing all their bills again (unless of course the computers rise up with the rest of the machines against us), so maybe it's really just high time that the Post Office trimmed down?
Council May Actually Lower Vacant Property Tax: The D.C. Council are gathering as we speak for their final legislative session before the break, during which they'll vote on how they'd like to close the massive, looming budget gap facing the city. But here's a real headscratcher: Michael Neibauer in the Examiner reports that there's one tax they are actually considering lowering: the tax rate on vacant property, which looks like it will come down from 10 percent to 5 percent. Enough Council members apparently believe that the tax is so high that it actually prevents some owners from fixing up their vacants. Still, it's a pretty strange move considering they're also talking about slashing the budget for cops and teachers.
New Mental Health Hospital is Too Small: Neibauer hits it out of the park with two great stories this morning. The lede says it all: "The District's new $157 million, 293-bed psychiatric hospital on the campus of St. Elizabeths will be too small to house its anticipated number of patients when the long-awaited facility opens in 2010, city officials said this week." Another classic moment in local governance.
Briefly Noted: Two-alarm blaze, this time at 329 Rhode Island Ave NE ... Metrobus driver charged with driving bus without valid license ... New witness in the Chandra Levy case ... EHN working to save city's needle exchange program.
This Day in DCist: In 2008, the mayor of Berwyn Heights, Md. had his home raided and his two dogs killed by a SWAT team who incorrectly believed he was a drug dealer, and in 2007, WMATA was sorry that we found out that they kill birds all the time.
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"13 area post offices are slated to close"
I better E-mail my congressman to complain.
"...maybe it's really just high time that the Post Office trimmed down?"
Yes. Duh.
Who the hell gets Netflix through the mail anymore? Stream that shit over your Xbox!
I have Roku, but the appeal of "Coach" seasons 1-4 is not that appealing.
Netflix streaming quality isn't nearly as good as DVD and nowhere near HD quality. When I watch "Ilsa: Harem Keeper of the Oil Sheiks" I want to be able to count the hairs on the guy's back.
Monkey, Netflix offers streams at 720p, which is significantly higher than DVD. I strongly suggest you just get a new TV, by which I mean "stop making your poor children act out 'Do The Right Thing' yet again while you drunkenly critique their performances."
Ha! Do The Right Thing isn't even available on Netflix steaming, along with 95% of the rest of the Netflix library: ergo - why people continue to use snail mail netflix
I am with Monkey. Even when it says I am getting HD quality, it just isn't as good. Not a real biggie for most the movies
I have to agree with the council on this one. The vacant property tax would still be too high at 5%. In fact, it would be too high at 0%. Taxpayers should be paying vacant property owners to keep their properties vacant. All those rats and dead hookers stacked like cordwood, they don't just pile up of their own accord. Do you realize how difficult it is to totally ignore a property for decades until it implodes in a plywood-boarded goatse of neglect? Just ask Shiloh; being an absentee slumlord is a full-time business. Then there's that whole urine stench. You can't get a stench like that just from the homeless. It's only through a careful distillation of Steel Reserve filtered through the diseased kidneys of the homeless, blended with the micturated MD 20/20 of maniacs who've gone off their medication can you get the rich, urban bouquet that is the DC vacant property turned open ditch latrine in midsummer. It's like Johnny Walker Blue Label, only with diseased pee.
Diseased pee?
"Enough Council members apparently believe that the tax is so high that it actually prevents some owners from fixing up their vacants."
Pffft. This can only mean one thing: DC council members own empty buildings.
Yes. Diseased pee. With the growing popularity of those Arkansas-style urine guzzling parties that all the celebrities are throwing, you just can't be too careful.
That is such bullshit. Any property owner who files to renovate their property is granted an exemption from the vacant rate for so long as they are actually renovating the place.
And property owners can claim 3 sequential different exemptions for 1 year each (for three total years) without actually doing anything to rent, sell, renovate or otherwise improve their property. What a con.
Brick and mortar post offices are dinosaurs of a bygone era. Many post office functions can be easily privatized in multi-use commercial locations, and would provide better service and hours. I agree with closing LeDroit Park--and it's just around the corner. I never see any customers in there, and it's only open Mon-Fri mornings and afternoons, with a lengthy lunch-time closing. Meanwhile, the Southeast station on Pa Ave SE practically has a line out the door all the time, and never enough staffing.
On the odd occasion I get mail from overseas, and USPS has to handle it, they always leave some damn not and it becomes a logistical nightmare to get to the post office before it closes at 4:30 and you have to wait in a line behind the old people getting their medicine from Canada and the insane people who just want to argue with postal workers about stamps and deliveries and god knows what else. They also lost a $200 package of mine; never lost anything through UPS or Fedex. And unless you tell them otherwise, UPS just just leaves the package; FedEx sometimes leaves a note but they're open until 8pm so you can actually get it without missing work. Anyway, I haven't mailed a letter since I had to mail my last student loan check and I stopped caring about the post office around when Al Goldstein left Screw Magazine. Hasn't been the same since.
Post offices, writing checks, and people who buy crap with pennies need to go.
Oh fantastic... I'm all about trimming the fat in government but jeez the post office service is bad enough now... I actually do send stuff, but my main use of the post office (the National Capital Post Office by Union Station) is for receiving mail and packages that I can't get delivered to my apartment... and you go in this place there's always a 5-mile long line... I think they should take the suggestion of a few people that were in the line with me one day and put in a cocktail bar! Seriously we were all craving a drink and would have paid exorbitant prices to get one right there at that moment, lol. At anyrate, perhaps the post office should be done away with, but then we'll all be forced to pay the absolutely ridiculous prices of the private ventures... I pay $85/year for my PO Box, UPS Store wanted almost $450! F--- that!
Why is it that politicians always turn to budget cuts FIRST? Why don't they ever spend a few minutes to try and brainstorm (or listen to their constituents brainstorming) ideas for raising revenue?! Oye...
One of the main reasons I avoid the post office is because of the long lines I encounter every time I go in. Trust me, I do prefer to use the good ol' USPS, but that means I have to walk 6 blocks, wait at least 30 minutes, and pay $6 to mail a box... Or do it all from my desk, where the UPS man comes to pick it up for me for $8... Touch choice.
Don't touch me....
Maybe it's a tough choice for you, but not for me.... Yeah I have to take the Metro Red Line down to my post office, and have waited equally that long, but what choice do I have? The nearest UPS store is even further, has fewer hours of service, is more expensive to use, and can't even compare to the low fees I pay for my USPS box over what I'd pay for one there!
I don't really see the tough choice there.. This is just YET ANOTHER example of how Government refuses to do anything but take the easy path out by cutting, slashing, shutting down, and trimming... After all it'd be so difficult and such a shame to use our collective intelligence to come up with solutions that would not destroy the long-standing institution of post delivery after hundreds of years in operation... *sigh*
The problem with this for me is that my lazy ass mail man, sorry, mail carrier, often doesn't deliver packages-even though I work at home. Sometimes he doesn't leave a note. Soo...after waiting 2 weeks for Call of Duty 4, I need to go to the post office, wait in line 30 minutes, wait another 15 while they look for it, and then be told that it still must just "be on the truck." and that I should come back tomorrow.
I complained about my mailman, I mean mail carrier, told them he wasn't delivering packages. I go home and, surprise surprise, it gets delivered within an hour.
I think a big reason for the lines are the post-911 rules that say you can't drop anything over a pound in a mail box.
For what will probably not be the last time, no, USPS was not and is not considering cutting mail on Saturday. Yes, they want permission to cut back to five days a week. But the lightest mail day is Tuesday, so it'd probably be Tuesday.
Also, keep in mind, everyone, that USPS receives no taxpayer money. Its funding comes entirely from its own revenue.
I would be okay with them raising the rates a little bit in some areas. I mean 44 cents is pretty cheap to mail a letter... You can't buy anything for 44 cents anymore... ***OR*** better idea, start charging for distance a little more accurately. THis "one size fits all" cost strategy clearly isn't working when it costs you 44 cents to mail a card to Georgetown or Alaska! Require premium surcharges for mail outside of a certain zone (but make it easy enough to figure out that people can still make sure they have the proper postage on their mail before dropping it in a box, like say, with a diagram on the boxes). Charge more for bulk mail delivery, I hate getting those stupid catalogues anyway... Maybe they could start looking at UPS and FedEx to see why those companies are so successful and start trying to model themselves on that approach. *shrugs* just a few ideas that will never fall on any politicians ears....
Postal Rate changes are regulated and tied to the consumer price index.
Can you imagine some congresscritter from east podunk being ok with charging more to send mail to his district, or delivering less often just to his constituents?
USPS has to go to every door, 6 days a week to deliver, for the same price.
UPS and Fedex do not have to charge the same price, and do not have to deliver everywhere/everyday, and change prices depending on the mailing marketplace.
I think they have plenty of room for savings, but they are better than most government endeavors.
Thank you for writing this. It drives me nuts that the false idea keeps being spread that Saturday service will be cut.
The postmaster has said about as loud and clear as he can that it would be Tuesday service cut. Because as you said it’s the lightest mail day and because their Saturday service provides a competitive advantage over other services.
I actually don't think it would be a big deal to cut Saturday service, but I don't think Tuesday service should be cut. The M-F business offices depend on Tuesday service, but not Saturday, and most personal mail is a thing of the past at this point.
Maybe they should raise the rates for sending junk mail. I still use the post quite a bit (there are only two bills I pay online) and I get junk mail just about every day.
I would be extremely happy with the corresponding decline in junk mail brought by a rate increase, but I don't think that would help the USPS' bottom line.
There should be a law that anything sent to "OCCUPANT" requires twice the postage. No, make that ten times the postage!
If you look at nationwide closing lists, all the locations are in urban and suburban locations. No cutbacks in East Dogpatch, where the cost of delivering mail is already much higher, but the stamps cost the same. Another tough call is writing a paper check, sealing an envelope and using a 44-cent stamp, when I can pay instantly, on-line for free. (Discounting of course the sunk cost of having a computer and broadband access.) No mail delivery on Tuesdays is a dumb idea for businesses that still depend on mail service. That cutback will only further marginalize USPS, and speed up its long decline into irrelevancy.
We grew up in the country. Back in the day, it was a genuine thrill to open the mailbox and get a real, live letter from a faraway relative or friend. Those days are long gone.
RIP USPS. We hardly knew you. But then again, you hardly knew me either, address or not.
laur n,u probably wont read this but, USPS will come to wherever and pick up you package for nothing! if people would just realize that those other places charge for every pick-up. USPS is free!!!!! FREE!!!!! if you go to usps.com, e-mail(ha-ha)them and tell them you have something to pick up, they will and its free!!!! nobody is cheaper than the USPS! NOBODY!!
Netflix will scream bloody murder if the USPS cuts Tuesday delivery. Netflix doesn't mail out DVDs on Saturdays, so a DVD mailed on Monday wouldn't get to you until Wednesday (if, like me, you usually get next-day delivery). Same with sending one back. I will be pissed if there's a slowdown and other Netflix users will be, too.