The United States Postal Service will close its facility inside of News Express at 4853 Cordell Avenue in Bethesda permanently Tuesday, September 1, 2026. This mini post office has been operated under contract within the convenience store for many years. The operating hours, and convenient location, made this facility preferable to the U.S. Post Office at 6900 Wisconsin Avenue for many in the Woodmont Triangle and East Bethesda neighborhoods. Once again, the failure of Montgomery County elected officials to ensure adequate postal facilities - when two downtown Bethesda post offices were closed last decade - continues to bite local residents.
Isn't that a federal decision, rather than one made at the county government level?
ReplyDelete4:51: It is a USPS decision to close post offices, but local officials have an advocacy role in representing the interests of their constituents. We've seen time and again that they shirk this role, whether it be the post office closures, or the Walter Reed campus matters. Van Hollen, our congressman at the time, failed to forcefully protest, and the County Council didn't even bother to get involved.
Delete4:51: It is a USPS decision to close post offices, but local officials have an advocacy role in representing the interests of their constituents. We've seen time and again that they shirk this role, whether it be the post office closures, or the Walter Reed campus matters. Van Hollen, our congressman at the time, failed to forcefully protest, and the County Council didn't even bother to get involved.
DeleteThis is a lot like your complaints that companies moving their headquarters to this area aren't moving to Montgomery County: it might well be true that county officials didn't make a strong case for locating here (or, not closing post office facilities here), or even that they didn't even try, but you haven't substantiated any of that.
Delete6:24: The County Council is on video stating that they were unfamiliar with what I was talking about when I brought up the post office closures at the Chevy Chase debate in 2014. If they had actually been working behind the scenes to keep them open, they would have expounded chapter and verse on those efforts when I raised the topic. Instead, they looked like total idiots and were laughed at by the audience, who knew exactly what I was talking about, because they no longer had a convenient post office.
DeleteYou think local politicians are supposed to spend their time trying to micromanage which buildings USPS rents? wtf?
ReplyDelete9:57: I do, because it's not only their job, but they already micromanage nearly every other ****ing aspect of our lives in Montgomery County. This is one that's actually in their job description.
DeleteNo, they should spend their time figuring out sinister ways to suck it to all the suckers who keep voting them in office,
DeleteRobert Dyer @ 4:35 AM - What aspects of your life does the County “micromanage”?
DeleteYeah, I’m sure the MAGA-overseen USPS cares deeply what Dem Senator Van Holden has to say about the shuttering of a dormouse-sized PO in a county My Pretty Pony —oops, I mean My Favorite President -Him— lost by more than 50 points. It’s surely right at the very top of their list of concerns.
ReplyDeleteSilly rabbit.
10:42: The "oops" is that Barack Obama was president when the two downtown Bethesda post offices were closed.
DeleteIt really is absurd how they pick and choose what matters and what doesn't. The entire state top to bottom could be MAGA, and these "people" will still find a people to hate and accuse. Show them the direct facts and they literally look away rather than accept reality. The Violent Right, Robert included, really are so far away from rationality it beggers belief
DeleteLet's face it, the USPS cannot sustain its bloat and waste, they need big cuts and certainly need to reduce deliveries. Someday we'll see just M-W-F mail and will be lucky to have window service other days, goodbye Saturday delivery.
ReplyDeleteIt will be a far cry from twice a day delivery which we had when LBJ had to create a new 'middle class' sans education, sacrifice, and discipline: about the samefor Unions of that era, as well. The USPO is just too inefficient and burdened by mostly overpaid and way underworked opportunists waiting for big retirement checks.
Major issues the postal service have are transition to digital communication (email, etc) and they are required to deliver the “last mile” across the whole US while delivery services have picked off kore populated routes. I agree there will have to be less deliveries per week, though kit down to 3x per week; Congress also is involved.
DeleteFor this Woodmont Triangle resident, this is disappointing! The convenience was super nice and the staff was always helpful the few times a year I needed to mail a package or purchase stamps.
ReplyDeleteI never knew it was there
ReplyDeleteYou aren't the only one. I thought it was just a beer store.
DeleteWhat's good for the goose, Robert @ 4:37
ReplyDeleteAn absolutely horrible decsion. I have been using this service for years, including when it was at the prior location along Old Georgetown Road. It's super convenient in large part because it's available until 8 pm on weeknights and ion both Saturday and Sunday.
ReplyDeleteAs others have mentioned, the staff has always been friendly and helpful.
What a scam!!!
And the decision more than a decade ago to consolidate the prior two downtown Bethesda postal locations (one above the Bethesda Metro station and the other off Arlington Road, both of which had parking) WITHOUT ANY PARKING was another WTF move ...
This seems to have come out of nowhere?!?! Was there any advance notice, or was it simply a unilateral decision by the USPS? (I guess with the final okay by the County Council?)
ReplyDeleteWill we still be able to mail stuff though Rudy?
ReplyDeleteRudy is leaving before year's end.
DeleteMost people under 50 have never been to a post office. This is a trend that will continue as boomers continue dying off.
ReplyDelete