Baker's Dozen: Postal Service Considering Closing 13 Area Offices

Tim Pigott

Through rain, snow, sleet or hail, only cost efficiency studies can stop the U.S. Mail. The United States Postal Service announced today that it's looking at closing down 13 area offices.

Spokesman Mark Reynolds said the USPS will look at customer traffic and the accessibility to postal services in the vicinity of the targeted stations. Retail outlets nearby may already offer services already provided by the Postal Service. None of the locations will close before December, so if you live near any of the affected locations you can breathe a sigh of relief that the Postal Service will get your holiday cards and gifts to their destinations a week late.

The offices targeted for closure include:

Chicago
3639 W. 79th St.
611 W. 63rd St.
956 E. 58th St.
6559 S. Ashland Ave.
2345 S. Wentworth Ave.
168 N. Clinton St.
4222 W. Madison St.
116 S. Western Ave.
324 S Laramie Ave.
5001 W. Division St.

Riverdale
661 W 138th St.

La Grange Park
701 E. 31st St.

Hillside
505 N. Wolf Rd.

Not certain about the suburban locations, but all the Chicago locations save the Clinton and Wentworth stations are coincidentally located in predominantly African American neighborhoods. The Wentworth station, in the far reaches of Chinatown, is blocks from the main post office station for the 60616 area code on South State Street.

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By Chuck Sudo in News on July 26, 2011 4:51 PM

Comments [rss]

ScooterLibbby

956 E. 58th St. isn't a black neighborhood.
It's the little second floor PO for the University of Chicago.

And not only the worst PO in Chicago is Rogers Park, easily the worst in the country!

Mimihaha

I wonder if those areas lost a substantial amount of population. Wasn't there a story recently about the decline in the black population in the city?

Now that I've been reasonable, I wish they'd close the Ravenswood PO. The people who work the counter are the rudest people alive and seem to make it their business to not deliver the mail.

Kaonashi

No they haven't, and some of these locations (116 S. Western Avenue, for one) are head-scratchers because it simply doesn't make sense. The 58th street location is also densely populated (seeing how it services UoC and probably a good portion of Hyde Park as well). Very curious what criteria was used to determine what locations to close because this doesn't look good.

cubblue

I am more than a little confused why it was mentioned that the locations were in predominantly African American neighborhoods. While this may be noteworthy, I think that it was an attempt to make THAT the story, rather than the postal service in general is is much less in demand now than ever before.