Post Office Locations, Routes, Mailing Addresses and a Lost Identity

For the past 30 years I have physically lived in 4 different houses where the town I lived in was not recognized by the local town Post Office. One had a small Post Office that was protected by the local Congressman. It provided PO Boxes to residents who wished to convene in the former Town Center for gossip and sometimes flaunt their address. That town habit cost the Post Office and the town a lot of money to rebuild a few years ago, although it is now a lovely new facility connected to a Deli. The old Deli across the street went out of business with the demise of the old Post Office next to it. The Town Center activity has since shifted to the Municipal Building and the new Library that the folks decided to build; but that's another story for another time.

I currently live in Aiken, SC in an Equestrian Development that is divided by a Road. If you live on my side of the road, you have a Beech Island mailing address. If you live on the other side of the road and live in the same Development, under the same Home Owner's Association, the same Bridle Trail system, etc., you have an Aiken mailing address.

By the way, there is no Post Office in Beech Island, or Town Center for that matter. If I put my zip plus 4 into the Post Office search engine for the nearest Post Office to me, it comes up with Langley, SC, another small town with an old cemetery, no Town Center and a 4 Lane Highway running through it. Langley is about 7 miles in the opposite direction from where my life takes me. Did I mention I am a horse person and I live in Aiken?

I have gone through the logistics of this several times with local Postmasters and even written to the Almighty Post Master General, Congressmen, Senators, etc. I understand, under the current policy, that it can’t be changed due to postal routes that were established over 100 years ago based upon then existing rivers, streams, etc. I also understand, based on the comment I received from a PO employee in charge, that it made sense to change my address. However, they would never recommend it to their superiors as it would not be received well or go anywhere if they recommended it...status quo - good, speaking up with an idea - bad.

Here is where it gets interesting. I am serviced out of the North Augusta, SC Post Office, which is about 13 miles away and overseen by a Post Master who currently works in Augusta GA. The Aiken Post office is about 7 miles from my house. I’d much rather drive 7 miles to an area that I visit almost daily than 13 miles to a strange town to pick up a letter I must sign for, etc.

In addition, within 7 to 10 miles from my house and within less than 1 to 2 miles of the next Post Office, on the same stretch of busy highway, there are 5 Post Offices: Gloverville, Langley, Warrenville, Bath and Clearwater. Not exactly Town Centers today where people are convening for gossip and a cup of coffee. Google maps shows the Bath Post Office located in Beech Island!?! They get their data from the same data base that the Post Office uses for their routes.

Some of these buildings were put in place at the request of Senator Strom Thurmond, many years ago, and frankly continuing to have any or all five of them is a waste of current tax payer money and resources. One of these offices only services about 200 people. However, the resident employee does have a lot of time to catch up on their magazine reading…

The Post Office has plans to deliver mail 5 days a week. That's OK with me. They want to do more online services, also OK with me. However, while they are at it, why not add some updated logic to mail delivery. I know they use GIS Systems (Geographic Information Systems) for mail routes, etc.

Why not give people what they basically really want, a mailing address from the town they live in? It should not require a physical brick and mortar building to be in the vicinity to accomplish this. If the Post Office uses existing technology and tweaks their systems, they could give me an Aiken mailing address and have whoever is physically closest to me deliver the mail to me.

If someone lives in New Vernon NJ, votes in New Vernon, is a member of the New Vernon Fire Department or the New Vernon School Board, they should be able to have a New Vernon mailing address instead of a Morristown or Basking Ridge NJ mailing address for mail delivery or a New Vernon Post Office Box to pick up their own mail. Folks could keep their Gloverville, Langley, Warrenville, Bath and Clearwater SC addresses, but not have to be serviced by a brick and mortar building physically located in "their town”.

We had a recent uprising in this area where a local Representative got involved because of a route change that changed peoples mailing addresses from the town they lived in. Imagine that? Maybe that's the opposite of what people want?

It has always been bad enough over the years trying to explain why I have a different mailing address than where I tell people I live. Directions are always a nightmare. However, think about the safety aspect too. In a small town where the local government rules and the Fire Department and Police Officers service the town, that's one thing. I now live in a large County with a large population. The County Sheriff's Department is stretched so thin over such a large area, they sometimes have trouble figuring out where I live! We have two wonderful Volunteer Fire Department's in our area. Because Beech Island's Fire Station is over 22 minutes and 13 miles away from us, the local Aiken Fire Station Volunteers will come to our side of the street as back up, because they are less than 5 min and 2 miles away!

The Post Office location or route should not determine a person’s address, but the town they live in should. The Post Office has zip plus 4, which narrows down physical locations. They could probably give me an Aiken mailing address with the same Beech Island Zip Code using my zip plus 4. They could change my zip code; I don’t care. Better yet, use this intelligence to reroute where mail is delivered from, with much more centralized delivery.

I could receive mail where I live, where I tell people I live. It's why I moved here in the first place; to live in Aiken and partake of it's equestrian lifestyle.  I'm not a wealthy person with a stable full of expensive horses. I am only a disabled Senior Citizen who likes to walk the trails quietly, commune with nature and my horse and enjoy the scenery. That's why I moved to Aiken.

The Post Office could reduce brick and mortar expenses tremendously. Some specific jobs may be lost, some gained and some relocated. I  would imagine based on commuting models that it would be better for the environment if routes were planned more efficiently. It would mean that a few workers may have to travel farther to work rather than the Post Office's larger vehicles traveling farther to deliver mail to illogical locations.

I realize this would stand the Post Office's hair on end and have people running into walls thinking the sky is falling. It would force Post Office employees to think out of the box, throw out the existing model, based in some cases on rivers and streams that have since rerouted themselves, and do something totally different. 

The Post Office needs to start thinking in terms of servicing people who live in specific towns. Recognize people's identities and the buildings that service them become less important.

This may not sit well with politicians who want to protect the status quo. Many government workers and people here in the South are afraid of any change, even if it benefits everyone and saves money. Many political careers were made in the past by doing favors for the locals, like giving them their own Post Office building.The South is full of favors and relationships. But this would have to take place everywhere the US Postal Service delivers the mail. The South will just have to go along with the change or maybe follow Strom Thurmond's way and stop change through filibuster, a political way of holding your breath until you turn blue and get your way.....

For once, use some new logic and updated technology. Ask people the right questions to find out what they want and they may find that many are lacking an identity when it comes to their mailing address. Look at the solution, the cost savings and the impact. Initially it will be big on all counts. Yes, people will have to change their business cards, mailing labels and stationary. Oh wait, most of that is created digitally anyway. It’s happened previously, maybe before some reader's time. People were upset about change when standard Area Codes were changed and new ones added by the old AT&T, as the number of people with landline telephones expanded. Somehow we all survived that change. 

The Post Office has to realize that changing existing Postal Routes, that made sense over 100 years ago, is not just about a mailing address. It's not just about efficiency in a needed business that is losing billions each year. It all rolls back into many small Post Offices that still may need to be in a Town Center. Some of these needed buildings bring their resident's together over more than coffee and gossip. In some rural cases, it's the place where needed help and support is found. They help keep the town's identity alive. 

A mailing address is just that. It's all about an identity, who I am, where I live, the home team I root for, the place where I volunteer, my town, Pride of Place, who I am. It's not only the town's identity, it's part of my identity. This is something that many Americans need strengthened: an identity and Pride of Place.

Hi, I'm Linda and I am proud to say that I live in Aiken South Carolina, USA.

The Monologue That Kicked Off This BLOG From "The Newsroom" on HBO

Speech by TV news anchor Will McAvoy in the Pilot Episode of The Newsroom, after asked a question in a panel "What makes America the greatest country in the World?"

          

It's not the greatest country in the world, professor, that's my answer...

The NEA is a loser. Yeah, it accounts for a penny out of our paychecks, but he [gesturing to the conservative panelist] gets to hit you with it anytime he wants. It doesn't cost money, it costs votes. It costs airtime and column inches. You know why people don't like liberals? Because they lose. If liberals are so fuckin' smart, how come they lose so GODDAM ALWAYS!

And ... you're going to tell students that America's so starspangled awesome that we're the only ones in the world who have freedom? Canada has freedom, Japan has freedom, the UK, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Australia, Belgium has freedom. Two hundred seven sovereign states in the world, like 180 of them have freedom... there is absolutely no evidence to support the statement that we're the greatest country in the world.

We're seventh in literacy, twenty-seventh in math, twenty-second in science, forty-ninth in life expectancy, 178th in infant mortality, third in median household income, number four in labor force, and number four in exports. We lead the world in only three categories: number of incarcerated citizens per capita, number of adults who believe angels are real, and defense spending, where we spend more than the next twenty-six countries combined, twenty-five of whom are allies. None of this is the fault of a 20-year-old college student, but you, nonetheless, are without a doubt, a member of the WORST-period-GENERATION-period-EVER-period, so when you ask what makes us the greatest country in the world, I don't know what the fuck you're talking about?! Yosemite?!!!...

We sure used to be. We stood up for what was right! We fought for moral reasons, we passed and struck down laws for moral reasons. We waged wars on poverty, not poor people. We sacrificed, we cared about our neighbors, we put our money where our mouths were, and we never beat our chest. We built great big things, made ungodly technological advances, explored the universe, cured diseases, and cultivated the world's greatest artists and the world's greatest economy. We reached for the stars, and we acted like men. We aspired to intelligence; we didn't belittle it; it didn't make us feel inferior. We didn't identify ourselves by who we voted for in the last election, and we didn't scare so easy. And we were able to be all these things and do all these things because we were informed. By great men, men who were revered. The first step in solving any problem is recognizing there is one—America is not the greatest country in the world anymore.

Watch the entire monologue here or on Youtube: 

Blog post by Linda Vola