Roosevelt Island Post Office Among Those Being Considered For Closing

Image of Roosevelt Island Post Office

Roosevelt Island 360 share this link to a Bloomberg article reporting:

The U.S. Postal Service, which projects it will reach its $15 billion borrowing cap by the end of September, wants to make it easier to close some of its 31,871 post offices for economic reasons.

A change proposed by the agency, which has lost money for five consecutive quarters, would allow post offices to be considered for closing for reasons including “insufficient customer demand” demonstrated by declining mail volume, revenue or local population trends, according to a notice published today in the Federal Register....

According to the US Postal Service:

As more customers choose to conduct their postal business online, on their smart phones and at their favorite shopping destinations, the need for the U.S. Postal Service to maintain its nearly 32,000 retail offices — the largest retail network in the country — diminishes. To that end, the U.S. Postal Service announced today that it will be taking the next step in right-sizing its expansive retail network by conducting studies of approximately 3,700 retail offices to determine customer needs. As part of this effort, the Postal Service also introduced a retail-replacement option for affected communities around the nation.

“Today, more than 35 percent of the Postal Service’s retail revenue comes from expanded access locations such as grocery stores, drug stores, office supply stores, retail chains, self-service kiosks, ATMs and usps.com, open 24/7,” said Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe. “Our customer’s habits have made it clear that they no longer require a physical post office to conduct most of their postal business.”

For communities currently without a postal retail office and for communities affected by these retail optimization efforts, the Postal Service introduced the Village Post Office as a potential replacement option. Village Post Offices would be operated by local businesses, such as pharmacies, grocery stores and other appropriate retailers, and would offer popular postal products and services such as stamps and flat-rate packaging....

The Roosevelt Island Post Office is listed as one of those being considered for closing.

CNN adds:

The list released Tuesday has 3,653 facilities named:
-- Some 3,061 post offices with less than $27,500 in annual revenue, or 2 hours of workload daily
-- 385 post offices with less than $600,000 in annual revenue, and 5 or more postal service locations, such as stamp kiosks, within two miles.
-- 188 post offices with less than $1 million in annual revenue, and 5 or more postal service locations within 0.5 mile.
-- 19 offices currently suspended.

If the Roosevelt Island Post Office closes, I believe the closest Post Offices will be at Broadway/ 21st Street in Astoria or Third Avenue and 55th Street in Manhattan.

UPDATE 3 PM - According to the Associated Press:

... Most of the offices that face review are in rural areas and have low volumes of business. As many as 3,000 post offices have only two hours of business a day even though they are open longer, said postal vice president Dean Granholm.

Coming under review doesn't necessarily mean an office will close. The post office announced in January it was reviewing 1,400 offices for closing. So far 280 have been closed and 200 have finished the review process and will remain open.

Once an office is selected for a review, people served by that office will have 60 days to file their comments. If an office is to be closed, they will be able to appeal to the independent Postal Regulatory Commission....

Assembly Member Micah Kellner adds:

This is a very discouraging rumor. Obviously, Roosevelt Islanders need their own Post Office -- going to Queens or Manhattan is just not feasible. I will work with the community and other elected officials to ensure the Post Office remains open.

UPDATE 6:15 PM - Received the following statement from Roosevelt Island's Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney:

Roosevelt Island is a unique place in our great city that has many magical qualities -- but since Islanders can’t walk on water, it is imperative that the USPS maintain services at Roosevelt Island Station. It’s an important part of the Roosevelt Island community; without it, Islanders would not have access to the full array of postal services without traveling long distances across the swift-loving body of water that is the East River.  Closure of Roosevelt Island Station is particularly ill-conceived given the high numbers of persons with disabilities and of seniors living on the Island, who depend upon the Island postal facility day in and day out.

That said, it is critical that Roosevelt Island residents make sure their voices are heard by the United States Postal Service on this important question.  In the coming months, I will be joining with other government and civic leaders to alert Islanders about the potential threat to their post office, and to encourage them to respond to surveys by the USPS and others measuring the degree of support the local community is providing to Roosevelt Island Station.

Ms. Maloney's office also sent the following background information

Congresswoman Maloney helped lead the successful efforts in 2009 to prevent the closure of two other post offices in New York’s 14^th Congressional District that had been placed on a list of USPS facilities to be considered for closure: Pitt Station on the Lower East Side, and Cherokee Station in Yorkville.  At that time, the USPS had suggested that Upper East Siders using Cherokee Station might substitute Roosevelt Island Station for their everyday postal needs – a suggestion that made so little sense to anyone that it was deemed laughable.  Asking Roosevelt Islanders to substitute post offices in Manhattan or Queens for Roosevelt Island Station is an equally ill-conceived scheme, and Congresswoman Maloney intends to join with other elected officials in fighting any proposed closure of Roosevelt Island Station to the hilt.

State Senator Jose Serrano issued this statement:

If the Roosevelt Island Post Office is, indeed, being considered for closure, it is a truly disheartening prospect. For many Roosevelt Island residents, traveling  to Astoria or Manhattan to go to the Post Office is simply not an option. I look forward to working with my colleagues to make sure the Roosevelt Island Post Office remains open for business, and that the residents of the Island are not deeply inconvenienced by its closure.

 And NYC Council Member Jessica Lappin adds:

Roosevelt Island is just that – an island.  As such, it needs its own Post Office on Main Street.  I will work with Congresswoman Maloney to keep this critical branch open.

UPDATE 8/17 - Here is an online petition to save the Roosevelt Island Post Office. There are paper petitions available at some Roosevelt Island building lobbies. Ask your concierge.