The United States Postal Service has announced it intends to remove the mailbox outside 7514 Wisconsin Avenue in downtown Bethesda on November 23, 2023. A sticker announcing the planned removal was attached to the mailbox yesterday. It does not cite a reason for the removal of this particular mailbox. However, it provides a phone number to call, if you would like to contest the plan to remove it: 301-767-1742.
Removal of USPS mailboxes has been a controversial topic, since I first started writing about them many years ago. Arguments change, but the level of controversy remains the same. When the USPS began removing Bethesda neighborhood mailboxes in places like Sumner, my reports generated a few critical comments from people who said, "nobody uses mailboxes anymore." My reports on thefts from Bethesda and Chevy Chase mailboxes proved that theory wrong, as numerous residents reported having their mail stolen and checks washed. Finally, when mailboxes across the country began disappearing in the run-up to the 2020 presidential election, many Americans and news outlets declared this a conspiracy masterminded by Postmaster General Louis DeJoy to deter the return of ballots by mail. It turns out that mailboxes are still important after all!
7 comments:
Be gone, sidewalk clutter. They contribute nothing. If you want to mail something securely then go to a post office. If you want to mail something insecurely then that's why we all have personal mailboxes and/or outgoing mail slots.
Less and less mail but the USPS still out there sucking up money and squandering it. Quasi Gubmit or not, is there anything Gubmint run that's viable, efficient, and not teeming with fraud? I used to think maybe NiH but that's probably one of the worst.
1:42 PM: The deterrent is on the books, however apathy and indifference seems to have settled in:
"18 U.S. Code § 1708 - Theft or receipt of stolen mail matter"
The "gubmint" guy is literally parodying himself. Amazing.
So what are you disputing?
The mailbox on Old Georgetown Road immediately north of St. Elmo is still standing. That one is a huge nuisance. Everytime USPS personnel stop to pick up the mail, it blocks traffic at that key intersection for several minutes.
Any other mailboxes around town?
Newsboxes are almost gone - just two left in front of the Bethesda Medical Building, and one each on the plaza level and the lower level of the entrance to the Metro station. All abandoned.
No more public phones either. The last remaining traces of the ones at Tastee Diner, the Japanese grocer on St. Elmo Avenue and the one next to the garage on Waverly Avenue where the Vamoose stop used to be, are gone.
@10:55 AM Check out the repurposing of a public phone in Chevy Chase (DC side):
https://www.washingtonian.com/2023/09/07/why-is-there-a-new-pay-phone-on-a-quiet-street-in-dc/
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