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.

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.

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.

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.