North End post office just never opened today

By adamg on Tue, 10/01/2024 - 3:12pm

Sign on door of North End post office: Not open

A roving UHub photographer notes the post office on Hanover Street in the North End has a sign on the door saying it would be opening late, at 10:30 a.m., but that they still weren't open when she swung by at 2 p.m.

Earlier:
Letters, we get letters - just not through the Postal Service.

Neighborhoods:

North End

Free tagging:

USPS

Hanover Street

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Comments

Gets worse by the day

By Username Unknown on Tue, 10/01/2024 - 3:41pm.

The Postal Service is just a dumpster fire of undelivered letters.

Remember when working for the post office was a respectable and fulfilling profession? Now each branch is a dump and the carriers look like homeless folks. Zero accountability.

my mail person works his ass off

By bostnkid on Tue, 10/01/2024 - 3:45pm.

i see him delivering in the dark sometimes. even the old timers have to work saturdays and sundays now to keep up with amazon. not an easy gig.

They’re hiring if you think

By dd808 on Tue, 10/01/2024 - 4:00pm.

They’re hiring if you think you can handle it.

Yes, before the Republican

By Vicki on Tue, 10/01/2024 - 4:32pm.

Yes, before the Republican party started systematically trying to make it worse and undermine it. Part of that is under-staffing, and overworking the employees.

Look at the starting pay

By BostonDog on Tue, 10/01/2024 - 4:39pm.

The starting wage is under $19/hr, $39k/yr. The median wage is $25/hr and it takes a while to even get there.

No one should be surprised they are struggling to hire and retain people. Respect doesn't mean much when you're barely earning above the poverty line.

Don't blame the postal carriers

By Pete X on Tue, 10/01/2024 - 8:40pm.

Yes, the postal service is underfunded by congress and run by a republican pioneer-institute type "privatize everything" hack. It's not failing because you don't like the appearance of the hardworking carriers.

This is by design

By Angry Dan on Tue, 10/01/2024 - 8:43pm.

I wouldn't expect anything to change for the better as long as Louis DeJoy retains control of the USPS. He bought his way in via Trump in 2020 and has been ratfucking it up ever since.

Check his background and his history at the USPS and it's pretty obvious he's the last person you would want managing a vital public service.

...and still no adequate

By Rob on Wed, 10/02/2024 - 12:16am.

...and still no adequate explanation from Biden Administration on why he hasn't been replaced.

Postmaster General is nominated by POTUS and confirmed (or rejected) by a majority of the Board of Governors.
There are nine governors - appointed to staggered terms by POTUS, and can't be all of one party.
With having one Governor appointment per year, plus one or two vacant or extended terms to fill, plus having had the majority in the Senate to confirm the Governors - it's something of a mystery why Biden hasn't gotten someone better in as PG by now.

Because there isn't a problem

By cybah on Wed, 10/02/2024 - 8:13am.

...and still no adequate explanation from Biden Administration on why he hasn't been replaced.

because there is no problem here. What DeJoy is doing predates him by a few years, he's just executing the plans. Trust me if the Democrats thought he was going to hurt their outcome, they would have replaced him already. They haven't so there's no problem.

Sorry to pop everyone's vilification of DeJoy balloon, but this isn't the case. The only thing he did was be connected to the Trump Administration. Unlike alot of Trump Appointees that had no experience running the position they were put in... DeJoy has practical experience. In fact, he was probably the right person for the job. And if you read his credentials, it becomes more and more clear.

I will get flamed for saying this and you can STFU if you want to try that because it shows your mind is closed and you just want to continue to vilify this guy because it suits your anger at this time. I was just like you at one point, but I read more about DeJoy. There are several long form articles from reputable sources that describe what he's doing.. and do not paint a bad picture. In fact, it makes a ton of sense why.

Again between what I've learned about DeJoy, the Biden Administration's lack of removing this guy just screams to me there's nothing going on here and people's anger against this guy is just unjust.

Open your mind just a little bit and read... but you won't b/c its easier to fire back at me than it is to read and understand.

You know what paints a bad picture?

By Pete X on Wed, 10/02/2024 - 9:25am.

Mail sitting in piles and post offices without sufficient staff to stay open.

Seems like a pretty severe management problem to me, or are you gonna blame the mail carriers too? If more funding is needed to run the post office, then DeJoy should be speaking up, not pulling a Charlie Baker with the MBTA and trying to claim he's got sufficient funds while he slowly kills the system.

DeJoy is also a convenient target

By ScottB on Wed, 10/02/2024 - 12:20pm.

For cheap political points precisely because he was appointed by Trump. The Board of Governors has had a majority of Biden appointees since mid-2022, and since the Postmaster General serves at the pleasure of the board, he could have been replaced two years ago.

But no one questions why Biden hasn't gotten around to replacing DeJoy.

Dejoy is as uniquely UNQUALIFIED

By Anonymous2023 on Thu, 10/03/2024 - 9:44pm.

to be in his position as Trump was as, um, president.

Don't vote by mail. The republicans are fucking with the voting system because they know they can't win on the issues and policies.

DeJoy? Disgusting!

You are incorrect about the appointment process

By brianjdamico on Wed, 10/02/2024 - 8:42am.

Postmaster General is nominated by POTUS and confirmed (or rejected) by a majority of the Board of Governors.

From the USPS website:

The nine governors select the Postmaster General, who becomes a member of the Board, and those 10 select the Deputy Postmaster General, who also serves on the Board. The Postmaster General serves at the pleasure of the governors for an indefinite term and the Deputy Postmaster General serves at the pleasure of the governors and the Postmaster General.

https://about.usps.com/who/leadership/board-governors/

Yes, I know - I posted the

By Rob on Wed, 10/02/2024 - 12:55pm.

Yes, I know - I posted the same linked information when Adam had the article about Mission Hill & Dudley Square a few weeks ago.
Correct, it is not a formal or automatic term-beginning nomination by POTUS such as many positions in the Executive Branch that go to Senate for confirmation (and the Governors could, in theory, assert their independence and make a change on their own timetable & initiative).

I was referring to how it is, however, a body (the nine Governors) who are appointed in rotation for somewhat-fixed terms by the President in office as each seat becomes vacant. Since we are at a point where the appointees of this President (or of the last prior one of the same party) do or should represent a majority & quorum of the Board, and the President can certainly make his preferences known to them... it is not unreasonable to expect them to act in accord with those preferences.

You need to read

By cybah on Wed, 10/02/2024 - 8:18am.

Check his background and his history at the USPS and it's pretty obvious he's the last person you would want managing a vital public service.

I don't know.. he was the head of a logistics shipping company. I don't think his qualifications could be any better. That is pretty much the postal service.. a logistics shipping company.

I hate to further pop people's bubbles about DeJoy, but you are aware mail volume is down. Most of what I receive for mail these days is junk mail. The USPS was the king of inefficiently but because of decades of high mail volume no one cared. Now the USPS is losing money due to lower mail volumes, so they have to revitalize their operations. This is the plan that is being executed and was in place BEFORE DeJoy.

But please continue to vilify this guy because it makes you feel good.

Sometimes liberal democrats are just as bad about false information as republicans. They get a notion int heir head and refuse to believe any correct to that fact.

Being head of a logistics

By Bob Leponge on Wed, 10/02/2024 - 9:06am.

Being head of a logistics company is a mixed bag in that failure of the USPS is good news for logistics companies.

Starve it and watch it decline, rail about how bad it had become, garner public support for privatizing it into the hands of your buddies… it’s a very familiar playbook. See for example railways in England,

Also, I tire of the argument that the USPS is “losing money. “. How much profit does the Navy make? Or your local fire department? It’s not at all clear that essential government services need to run at a profit,

It's not at all clear

By ScottB on Wed, 10/02/2024 - 12:32pm.

That the USPS is an essential government service in 2024. The Constitution gave Congress the power to establish a Post Office, but the relevance of the USPS has declined as most personal communication has shifted to various digital modes of transmission.

I communicate with remote family and friends more regularly today than ever, but the personal communication I receive via mail has dwindled to greeting and holiday cards/letters. Most companies would prefer to send you correspondence electronically because it's cheaper. So the mail ends up being mostly junk that goes directly into the recycle bin, and that doesn't seem great for the environment.

Longer-term, it might make sense to just reduce the frequency of residential delivery of mail to a few days a week due to lower volumes. I'm not sure how this would impact their competitiveness in the parcel delivery space but there are several profitable players there.