Under Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe, the U.S. Postal Service has become proficient at disposing of historic post offices. The USPS flouts the intention of U.S. preservation laws and relies upon the difficulty and expense of challenging a government agency in court. Berkeley's historic Main Post Office has been threatened for over two years by the USPS and this month the USPS moved closer to selling 2000 Allston Way.

On September 24, 2014, the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) wrote to the President's Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP) to advise that the California State Historic Preservation Officer, the City of Berkeley, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and the California Preservation Foundation do not agree with the finding of the USPS that there will be no adverse effect on historic properties from the sale of Berkeley's Downtown Post Office at 2000 Allston Way.  The USPS requested that the ACHP "issue an opinion as to whether the adverse effect criteria have been correctly applied."

Based on USPS past practice, this request to the ACHP indicates that the USPS is moving forward to sell Berkeley's Main Post Office.               

When the ACHP replies the USPS is required to respond but is not required to comply with the ACHP recommendations. Once the USPS issues their response there is no further administrative remedy. To say it plainly, USPS can sell 2000 Allston Way.

The ACHP currently intends to issue their response on Friday, October 24, 2014.

The USPS is proposing that the USPS will hold a covenant over the property to make sure that the sale does not affect the historic features of the building. Given the recent conduct of the USPS, this is surely a case of trusting the fox to guard the hen house.

Section 106 is part of the National Historic Preservation Act. Back in October of 1966 Congress found that "the spirit and direction of the Nation are founded upon and reflected in its historic heritage" and that it was "necessary and appropriate for the Federal Government to accelerate its historic preservation programs and activities." Section 106 was intended to encourage citizens to engage federal agencies in problem-solving with projects that impact historic resources. Citizens to Save the Berkeley Post Office asked to be included as a consulting party in the Section 106 process. We didn't hear back, so we asked again. Eventually USPS told us no but said they would copy us on all consulting party material. Surprise. USPS didn't keep that promise. We found out about their September 24th letter by coincidence.

The ACHP is the authority on the responsibilities of government agencies with regard to historic property. But their role is only advisory. The ACHP supported our request to be a consulting party and wrote to the USPS pointing out that the USPS had not even provided a reason for denying us consulting party status. USPS thinks so much of the ACHP they didn't bother to respond.

So why is the USPS asking the ACHP to issue an opinion on whether they agree with the USPS determination of No Adverse Effect (NAE)? We can find part of the answer by going to the Federal Regulation. Section 800.5 provides an option for an agency when consulting with citizens and communities becomes tiresome: a Finding of No Adverse Effect. After making the finding of no adverse effect, the Agency requests a comment from the ACHP, notifies the consulting parties, waits for the ACHP response, and then issues a response to the ACHP. In the case of the USPS, that response is typically that the USPS disagrees with the ACHP.

From 800.5: "If the final decision of the agency is to affirm the initial finding of no adverse effect, once the summary of the decision has been sent to the Council, the SHPO/THPO, and the consulting parties, the agency official's responsibilities under section 106 are fulfilled."

The table below show that the USPS has gone the NAE (No Adverse Effect) route five times before and in four instances the post offices have been sold (Somerville, Santa Monica, Venice and Ukiah).  The fifth, La Jolla, is still at risk. In all of these cases, the ACHP judged the USPS covenant "insufficient."

USPS has been in negotiations with the City of Berkeley regarding a covenant to protect the historic features of our Main Post Office. A covenant is made strong both by the language of the covenant and by who holds the covenant.

Those of you with long memories will remember that Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates appealed the sale of our post office to the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC). The USPS called the sale a "relocation" and the PRC refuses to protect citizens against USPS relocations. But our Mayor asked where USPS intended on moving. USPS replied they didn't know but might just lease back the space they need at 2000 Allston Way. Well, what about USPS keeps the building and lease out any excess space. USPS could stay in place and rental revenues could defray maintenance costs. "Oh, No! Managing real estate isn't something USPS does."

So the City of Berkeley agreed to hold the covenant but made it conditional on the USPS agreeing to a long-term lease at 2000 Allston Way from the new buyer. That also wasn't a USPS thing.

Finding the City of Berkeley slow to agree to USPS dictates, the USPS now proposes that the USPS will itself be the covenant holder. This is problematic on many levels. Preservation is not a USPS priority, USPS has a demonstrated problem in working with communities. Moreover, USPS has never before acted as a covenant holder and has no experience administering a covenant. The covenant holder ought to have a licensed architect with historic preservation expertise available for on site determinations. The City of Berkeley has that. The USPS would have to contract locally. The covenant is perpetual but unlike the City of Berkeley, USPS is not requesting compensation for the expenses of "perpetual" administration of the covenant. As the seller of the building AND with a demonstrated greater interest in cash than preservation, the USPS has an inherent conflict in including any covenant language that would impact the sales price of the building. This conflict is reflected in the USPS covenant language which provides for automatic approval of changes to the building if the USPS fails to respond to a request.

For more comments on the problems with the USPS proposal, please read the October 14, 2014 response from attorneys for the City of Berkeley and the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Click to download a copy of the USPS Proposed Preservation Covenant.

The mural by Suzanne Scheuer in our post office lobby is a graphic history of Berkeley. The limestone bas-relief by David Slivka on the loggia speaks with quiet authority of the dignity of American workers. This is public art. It belongs to us. The United States Postal Service holds these works of art in trust for generations of the American people.

The USPS doesn't get it. In their letter their Preservation Officer describes the bas-relief as depicting the Pony Express. The letter continues: "These artworks are, and will remain, personal property of the USPS. The USPS intends to enter into a loan agreement with the purchaser that will, among other things, allow the artworks to remain in their current location, allow consistent public access not less than one day per month during normal business hours." So the USPS views these works of public art as their "personal property." Who even knew that the USPS was a person? And of course the notion that access to our art once a month is somehow sufficient is consistent with that view.

In the words of Gray Brechin, "The language of the public good is neither spoken nor understood by those who now run our postal service."

First, make sure your friends know that our historic post office has never been under greater threat than it is today. Second, the City of Berkeley is in a strong legal position to challenge the actions of the USPS. So let's make sure our elected representatives in Berkeley government know that we appreciate what they have done to date and that we expect Berkeley to continue this fight in the courts.

Our Congresswoman Barbara Lee has been our reliable ally. We need to do what we can to prevent 2000 Allston Way from being sold in some dark transaction that we only find out about weeks later. On October 1, Congresswoman Lee wrote Postmaster Patrick Donahoe to request that Mr. Donahoe "formally announce any details of a possible sale of the Berkeley Main Post Office should USPS make the decision to sell that property."

Berkeley citizens have shown amazing resourcefulness in fighting to preserve our historic post office. This fight isn't over. The real fight may just be getting started.

CRITICAL CITY COUNCIL MEETING
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER  9, 2014 at 7:00 p.m.
COUNCIL CHAMBERS, OLD CITY HALL
2134 Martin Luther King Jr Way
The Zoning Overlay Ordinance on Berkeley’s existing Historic Civic Center District, including our historic Post Office, has gained national attention. On Tuesday night, September 9, 2014, the City Council will hear public comment, discuss and consider the Ordinance, and then take a vote. If the Zoning Overlay Ordinance is approved by Council it will become law after a second reading. That second reading would likely be a consent calendar item. The Zoning Overlay will save the Post Office, Old City Hall, and our historic Civic Center from commercial development.

On Wednesday, August 27th, Berkeley's Planning Commissioners voted unanimously in approval of the Zoning Overlay.

The Planning Commissioners were responding to a request from the Mayor and Council that cited "strong community support" for the overlay. Our city officials know there's "strong community support" because time and again Berkeley citizens have showed up when it counted. The Council meeting on Tuesday night is an important one.

Show the City Council That We Care.
Bring a Friend. Let's Fill the Room!

Berkeley’s Historic Civic Center District is our Public Commons.  Appropriate zoning will protect the heart of Berkeley now and for years to come.

Read about the Planning Commission meeting on August 27th, 2014.

The Zoning Overlay is Item 60 on the Council agenda.

(September 9, 2014) The Berkeley City Council passed the Zoning Overlay Tuesday night as a consent item. After a second reading at the next Council meeting, the Zoning Overlay Ordinance will become law. The Zoning Overlay provides protections for the Post Office, Old City Hall, and our historic Civic Center against commercial development.

Thanks to all in the community for your energy and commitment.

The current tax credit system to promote historic preservation is perversely causing our nation's significant historic civic buildings to pass from public ownership into private hands. In Berkeley we're turning the tide.

Thanks to Mayor Tom Bates and all the members of the Berkeley City Council for their hard work and leadership on this issue.

(August 27, 2014): In two unanimous votes the Berkeley Planning Commission approved the Civic Center Historic District Zoning Overlay Wednesday night. The District Zoning Overlay protects Berkeley's historic public buildings from commercial development. 

The first vote accepted a finding from the Berkeley Planning Department that the District Zoning Overlay will have no environmental effect. The second vote approved the overlay ordinance as written in the citizen's initiative, Measure R. The District Zoning Overlay will go to Berkeley City Council for discussion and approval at their September 9 meeting.

In November, 2013, the Planning Commissioners approved by majority vote a similar overlay ordinance. When that overlay ordinance stalled at the City Council level, Berkeley voters collected signatures for a ballot initiative to enact the District Zoning Overlay and promote sustainable development in the downtown area that benefits the entire community.

By April, Berkeley voters obtained sufficient signatures to qualify the Overlay and Sustainable Development Initiative for the November ballot, now designated as Measure R. On June 24, 2014, the Mayor and Council moved by consent calendar a request to “the City Manager to draft an ordinance establishing a Civic Center District Overlay Zone and to bring it to the Council for a first reading at the Sept. 9, 2014 meeting. The ordinance should be consistent with the Civic Center District Overlay section of the proposed initiative ordinance.”

When presenting the District Zoning Overlay to the Commission, staff stated that there would be no effect on any of the existing uses of property in the Civic Center Historic District even if those uses are non-conforming.  

Berkeley Planning Department staff said the effect of its declaration of no environmental impact is that the overlay only gives direction to development but does not authorize any project. Any future project will have to go through its own environmental review.  

Attorneys for the United States Postal Service, Clark Morrison of Cox, Castle, Nicholson, submitted a lengthy written protest of the District Zoning Overlay. While the US Postal Service has notoriously ignored public comment, last night their attorneys cried foul alleging that the schedule for the “public comment period forecloses meaningful public participation.”

And while USPS has revised federal regulations to provide itself with an exemption to environmental review on closing facilities, last night the USPS asserted the need for environmental review to assess the potential of urban decay from the District Zoning Overlay.

Furthermore, the cash-strapped postal service was able to hire an additional consultant who wrote that preserving Berkeley’s Main Post Office requires a “new multi-story development within the existing building envelope.” The consultant’s report held that: “It is not likely that reuse of all or part of the approximately 57,000 gross square foot Post Office building space ‘as-is’ would generate value sufficient to assure the necessary preservation and restoration of the historic features of the building.”

Berkeley Planning Department staff advised the Commissioners that in their opinion the USPS legal protests are without merit.

Speakers from the community asked the Commission to work to keep postal services where they are and to recognize the importance of public spaces. One referred to the buildings of Berkeley’s Civic Center as architectural masterpieces that were passed on to us as part of the public commons and must be maintained for future generations.

Harvey Smith, President of the National New Deal Preservation Association, spoke to the one hundred year history of Berkeley’s Civic Center and noted that under the New Deal, development was exclusively for public purposes, but in the last few decades use decisions have been developer-driven.

Steve Finacom of the Berkeley Historical Society, referred to the legacy of Werner Hegemann, Berkeley’s first city planner, whose goal in planning was the proper coordination of all the needs of the public and bringing the civic, business and campus functions of the city into harmony. Mr. Finacom said “Our predecessors worked very hard to build the civic commons we have today. Our downtown will not decay if developers cannot get their hands on the post office. It is not necessary to convert the public space we have inherited to public profit.”

In voting to pass the Civic Center Historic District Zoning Overlay, Commissioner Dan Lindheim said his support for the Overlay was independent of post office issues and was based on the benefits of the Civic Center District Overlay to all of Berkeley's Civic Center. Commission Chairman Jim Novosel added in agreement that his vote was also determined by the benefits to the entire Civic Center from the District Zoning Overlay.

Minutes of the Planning Commission meeting 

Letter from Clark Morrison, attorney retained by the USPS, and the attached consultant's report

California Senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein were among the fifty senators who called for a one-year moratorium on U.S. Postal Service plans to close mail processing plants and slow down first-class mail delivery. Mail service has already suffered because of the 141 mail processing plants closed since 2012. The August 14, 2014 letter signed by 50 senators to Congress should block a proposal by Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe to close up to 82 additional mail processing plants, slow mail services and eliminate up to 15,000 jobs. The letter urged leaders of a key Senate committee to include a one-year ban on mail delivery cuts as part of must-pass legislation to keep the government running into the new fiscal year that begins Oct. 1.

Comprehensive postal reforms are necessary
“This one-year moratorium will give Congress the time it needs to enact the comprehensive postal reforms that are necessary for the Postal Service to function effectively into the future,” the senators wrote in a letter to Sens. Barbara Mikulski and Richard Shelby, the chairwoman and ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Committee.  The letter was drafted and circulated by Sens. Bernie Sanders, Jon Tester and Tammy Baldwin.

Slowing down mail delivery even further will hurt the economy
“At a time when our middle class is disappearing, the loss of 15,000 good-paying Postal Service jobs will harm our local communities and economies,” the senators wrote. “Slowing down mail delivery even further will hurt senior citizens on fixed incomes, small businesses and the entire economy,” the letter added. 

Misleading reports about supposed fiscal woes
Despite misleading reports about supposed fiscal woes, the Postal Service in fact has taken in nearly $1 billion more in revenue than it spent since the fall of 2012. The rising revenues are partly due to an increase in package deliveries for online retailers. That growth has more than made up for fewer letters being mailed because of email and online bill paying.

Hundreds of people gathered on the steps of Berkeley's historic Main Post Office to hear Ralph Nader speak about the fate of the United States Postal Service, privatization and the importance of our public commons.

Read Ralph Nader's letter to Senator Dianne Feinstein here.