The other shoe has dropped from one of Bethesda's biggest scandals of more than a decade ago. When the United States Postal Service announced it would close both of its downtown Bethesda post offices, and sell the properties to developers, Montgomery County elected officials were conspicuously silent and failed to intervene. At the time, a USPS official announced that the agency would open a new downtown post office at 6900 Wisconsin Avenue, and a second one in the 20816 zip code. The 6900 Wisconsin post office did open, albeit with no convenient or handicapped-accessible parking, and now the 20816 post office is finally in the works.
The newest post office will be at the Westbard Square development at 5400 Westbard Avenue. USPS has leased a corner space on the ground level of the Giant building at the new development. The post office will be next to Silver & Sons BBQ. Previous prospective Westbard developer Equity One had promised a post office in its redevelopment plan for the site, but current property owner Regency Centers is finally delivering on it.
20 comments:
A corner space for a post office? A coffee shop or something similar would be so much better.
Hurray! The Wisconsin Ave PO is a travesty with no parking.
Well, maybe. But I guess you can take it up with the coffee stores for not grabbing it.
Just park in the Verizon lot, walk into the Verizon store to browse a bit, then over to the Post Office. Better yet, just walk there.
@6:50 - Would you like a little more whine?
7:09 Yes they couldn't have chosen more inconvient location. It's a hike from most of the Bethesda employment hubs precluding a lunchtime trip to send a package. Learning
@6:50
Tatte
https://robertdyer.blogspot.com/2024/02/tatte-bakery-cafe-to-open-at-westbard.html
Starbucks
https://robertdyer.blogspot.com/2023/07/starbucks-signs-on-to-stay-on-at.html
9:30 AM I know ppl who have been ticketed for parking in the Verizon lot. They even tried to tow someone with handicapped tags and only backed down after he lifted the leg of his pants to show his prosthesis when he protested and threatened to sue.
In addition, the Post Office no longer validates parking tickets if you park in the garage in the building next door with the PetSmart, Staples, etc.
Plus, given the lack of parking, it's a very poor location if you have large, heavy, and/or cumbersome packages.
It's total BS that the USPS never leased at least a few spots in the Verizon lot. It was never part of their plan. Even the prior location next to the Bethesda Metro had four parking spots, as inconvenient as they were to reach.
10:32 AM Have the planners located anything convenient or practical in Bethesda?
Sooner or later, there will be paid parking only in the Zenith Overlook location.
There is a U.S. post office substation in the News Express at 4853 Cordell Ave in Bethesda (in the middle of the Woodmont Triangle). They can do almost anything that you can do at a regular post office - packages, registered mail, etc. There are several public parking lots and garages nearby, as well as on street parking. Plus, the News Express is open many more hours than the regular post office.
So the wisconsin post office is closing to be replaced by the one at Westbard, or are they both going to exist? How can you not have a post office in downtown Bethesda. The mailboxes on the streets are regularly broken into and checks are stolen. I only mail at post offices now.
6:40: How do they make money doing Post office functions? How are people supposed to know about this?
Learning
8:52: The 6900 Wisconsin Avenue post office will remain open.
2:50 The postal "substations", officially called contract postal units, are compensated by USPS under an individual contract, and the payment from USPS to the contract postal unit is based on the amount of revenue for the USPS generated by the sale of USPS services at the contract unit. The contract postal units provide USPS services to customers at the same price that the USPS charges in its regular post offices.
The USPS has a web site (https://tools.usps.com/locations/home.htm) which can be used to locate all USPS facilities, including contract postal units. The contract postal units usually display large USPS signage in their front facades.
So which is the closest as the crow flies bonafide good old fashioned Post Office? 143 Rollins Ave Rockville, next to the firehouse?
@ 6:29 PM - Kensington, on Howard Avenue.
The issue with News Express is they only get one pickup a day, when the mail carrier does their usual stop. So if the carrier comes at 11am and you drop off something at 3pm, it won't go out until the next day. At a real post office, as long as you get it to them by closing, it will go out that day. At Glen Echo post office, sometimes the truck is even waiting there before 5pm and as soon as they close, they pick up the last of the mail and head off.
I know of two additional "near-by" USPS locations with extended hours (both with parking):
*The Shady Grove Road location is open 7:30 am to 7 pm weekdays.
https://www.postlocations.com/suburban-window-scv-post-office-5036-in-gaithersburg-md/
*The Tenleytown/Friendship Heights location at 4005 Wisconsin Ave is open Sundays 10 am to 4 pm (in addition to their regular hours M-Sat).
https://us-postoffice.com/dc/washington/friendship-post-office
Ahhh, thank you!
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