Keep the postal station open

Midtowners who want to keep the Tuxedo Park Post Office open will hold a noon rally and petition drive Saturday at the station, 2621 Pacific Avenue.

The head of the Miracle Mile Improvement District, Emily Ballus, ticks off some reasons for saving the station.

· A walkable city is good for local business, it helps the environment, and it preserves an area’s identity. Our area is one of the best in town for walking to work, dining, shopping, the market, entertainment, and our post office, which has been here for over 50 years.

·The replacement post office for post office box renters is West Lane, a 6.90 mile round trip.

·Over 225 businesses on the Miracle Mile alone use the post office, and over 2000 households in the University Neighborhood are within walking distance.

·Out of the 38,000 post office retail centers nationwide, the Post Office plans to cut less than 250 stations.  This is just over ½ of a percent of all stations, which means there is room for debate on which stations will be closed.

 ·The lease at Tuxedo Station doesn’t expire until 2015.

These are valid arguments. Big deal, one reader told me, we can drive to the Calaveras Station on Robin Hood. This is old-fashioned autocentric thinking. Walkability is a key design element of the city’s future. 

Besides – this may be a less valid argument — we don’t owe the feds any favors. They give us fewer tax dollars than the national average, their worforce bailed on downtown, and Uncle Sam’s latest round of Neighborhood Stabilization funds included nothing for Stockton. What services they offer they should maintain.