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.
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
Please send your letters of appeal through April 13 to:
USPS Vice President, Facilities
2 Congress Street, Room 8
USPS Facilities Implementation
Milford, MA 01757
