 An appeal must be postmarked by May 22, 2013, and mailed to: | USPS will abide by their own rules In a surprise development Monday, the Postal Service tacked up an announcement at the Berkeley Main Post Office that appeals on the sale & relocation must be postmarked by May 22, 2013. When the USPS approved the sale & relocation of our historic post office, they set an appeal deadline of May 7th. We cried foul and noted that fifteen days was not consistent with USPS regulations, was not the practice on the east coast and was a policy applied only in California. When we asked the Postal Regulatory Commission they said the USPS has the discretion to use either fifteen or thirty days. Then Congresswoman Barbara Lee's office asked the question. And now Berkeley has the thirty days it is entitled to by USPS regulations. Click to view or download the USPS posting. |
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"Please take a number" At the conclusion of the press conference, our elected officials went inside to hand their letters to a postal clerk. Although they had obtained a number earlier, there was still a short wait for an available window at this always busy and well-patronized post office. The press package includes the letter from Berkeley's Mayor and City Council, the letter from Loni Hancock and Nancy Skinner, and the letter from Congresswoman Barbara Lee. Click to view or download.
7 pm Thursday May 2nd Community Meeting at 2133 University Avenue
Letter to the USPS Vice-President for Facilities from our community "Together we are adamantly opposed to the sale of the Berkeley Main Post Office. We cannot imagine that anyone with any knowledge of the importance of this building to Berkeley would consider the relocation of its retail services and its closure. " click to read the entire letter BERKELEY TO APPEAL POST OFFICE SALE
Berkeley residents are united in wanting the US Postal Service to stay in its current central and historic location, and for the federal government to retain ownership of this public building. Author and geographer Gray Brechin remarked that “As elsewhere, the public comment is pro forma; the unanimous opposition of the impacted community counts for precisely nothing.” Berkeley businesses, churches and non-profits want bulk mail receiving services available in downtown Berkeley where it is accessible and convenient. In April the Postal Service moved ahead with the sale of three other historic post office buildings: the Wall Street post office in La Jolla, Old Chelsea on West 18th Street in New York City, and the Bronx General Post Office on the Grand Concourse. As in Berkeley, these three post offices contain New Deal public artworks. The murals in the Bronx by Ben Shahn are masterpieces, monumental in scale and extremely well-known. Save the Berkeley Post encourages its supporters to make a tax-deductible donation to the National Post Office Collaborate to support the legal efforts to stop these sales. Click here to make a donation to the National Post Office Collaborate The USPS notice of approval states that “there will be a marketing alternative to keep a right-sized retail presence in a portion of the existing Berkeley Post Office.” It said that it plans to rent a retail location in downtown Berkeley, either in the existing lobby of the Main Post Office or elsewhere. At present, the USPS owns the Main Post Office and pays no taxes on the property. Becoming a tenant represents a false economy and will leave the USPS vulnerable to rent increases in a high-rent commercial area. Berkeley city officials asked for a one year time-out to work with the USPS to find a solution that met the long-term financial needs of the Postal Service and maintained federal ownership. The Postal Service wasn't interested. As of 2003, the USPS real estate portfolio had an estimated worth of $110 billion. The process of privatizing USPS real estate holdings may yield enormous commissions to CB Richard Ellis, the giant commercial realty firm that was awarded an exclusive contract for USPS property sales. University of California Regent Richard Blum is the chairman of CB Richard Ellis and the husband of California Senator Dianne Feinstein. CONTACT STOP THE SALE!
DOWNLOAD A COPY OF OUR CURRENT FLYER
 On April 10, Postmaster Patrick Donahoe responded to a letter from Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates. Donahoe stated that in his view the economic crisis of the USPS is "not due to "a manufactured crisis," but instead, is a direct result of a fundamental change in the way Americans use the mail and the lack of flexibility in (the USPS) business model to adapt to these changes." And "cut, cut & more cuts."
 Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr and more than thirty other elected officials wrote the USPS on April 1st to offer their strongest objections to the sale of the Bronx General Post Office. At a poorly-publicized daytime public hearing on Feb. 6, community members rallied against the proposed sale. “We are appalled that, despite request for further community consultative processes at that hearing, the United States Postal Service has seen fit to issue a final sale determination,” read the letter, signed by Borough President Diaz, nine city council members, 16 state representatives and three Congressmen. The Postal Service’s “refusal” to host evening hearings or accept community input electronically “when taken together, seem designed to minimize the public input during this important process,” the letter read. “We cannot and will not accept that the Postal Service could come to such a deleterious determination affecting such an important part of the our Bronx heritage,” the letter concluded. Read the entire letter from Bronx elected officials here. The Bronx General Post Office lobby is filled with thirteen egg tempera on plaster frescos by artist Ben Shahn and his wife Bernarda Bryson Shahn. Inspired by the Walt Whitman poem "I Hear America Singing," the Shahns' murals collectively entitled Resources of America, illustrate the nobility of the American worker. The panels depict men and women throughout the country engaged in labor, from rural cotton and wheat fields to urban textile factories and steel mills. Hydroelectric dams and industrial blast furnaces complete the powerful imagery which symbolized 1930s America. Any person may make a written request for review by the US Postal Services Vice President for Facilities Many Thanks! Your letters, leafleting, rally presence, speaking and emails are making a difference.04/02/2013  photo credit: David Bacon Berkeley’s Mayor and City Council are unanimous in opposing the sale of our beautiful, historic Post Office. Their official letter to the USPS requests a one-year moratorium on selling the Post Office. Berkeley’s city officials would like to work with the USPS to keep our Main Post Office in the public trust. To date, we know of no decision having been made whether or not the building will be sold. Add your voice to the growing movement to save Berkeley’s historic Main Post Office and to keep our postal service serving the public good. Join Our Weekly Informational Leafleting Outside the Post Office on Saturdays. Saturdays from 11:30 to 3:00 — please sign up for an hour or two. Contact Sally Nelson sallynels7@gmail.com Put “Save P.O.” in the subject line. | ABOUT
The USPS wants to sell Berkeley's historic main post office. Citizens to Save the Berkeley Post Office is a grassroots group that has come together to block the sale of our heritage, stop service cut backs, and preserve living wage postal jobs. Our fight is not unique. Thousands of post office closures across the country mean the largest private auction of public history our nation has ever seen. Join the movement and spread the word. Our post office is not for sale. 
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