The Melcourt post office at 754 Melrose Ave is on a hit list, released by the Postal Service on July 26. The local post office is one of 17 Bronx post offices slated for closing, more than in any other borough in the city.
All told, as many as 3,700 post offices nationwide could be shuttered, said Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe in a statement accompanying the offices to be abandoned. Other local offices that could be shuttered include the Morrisania PO on E. 167th Street. and the Hunts Point office on Manida Street.
The postmaster said the aim was to close “facilities that suffer from ‘insufficient customer demand’ or where customers have other options for buying stamps and postal services.”
The Internet is to blame for the postal service’s troubles, Donahoe told Congress in May.
As customers turn increasingly to email and texting, the postal service has hemorrhaged money. It lost $2.6 billion in the first six months of this fiscal year, Donahoe said in testimony to a Senate subcommittee. Total mail fell 3 percent and first class mail 6.6 percent, he said. At that rate, he continued, the postal service would be unable to pay what it owes the federal government when its debt falls due on Sept. 30.
In March, Rep. Jose Serrano wrote to Donahoe protesting against cuts, and saying, “Our Bronx community is being asked to bear a disproportionate burden of your intended cost-cutting.”
Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. added his voice following the release of the list of 17 Bronx post offices facing elimination. “The Bronx cannot afford such a considerable loss of both jobs and commercial activity,” he said, “and the federal government must seriously reconsider enacting any post office closure plan that would have a serious negative impact on Bronx communities.”
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