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We published an item 10 days ago about two U.S. Postal Service dropboxes, on Alki Ave and Beach Drive (shown above via Google Street View), flagged with notices of upcoming removal (they may even be gone already – we haven’t had time to check in person). As promised, we contacted the local USPS HQ to follow up. Spokesperson Ernie Swanson says he doesn’t have a full list of marked mailboxes, but “about 70 boxes … might be removed this month from the area considered the Seattle Post Office which covers ZIP Codes from 98101 thru 98199, which, besides the City of Seattle, includes the cities of Des Moines, Burien, Shoreline and Bainbridge Island.” Pre-removal, he says, that area has about 600 mailboxes – so that means more than 10 percent are likely to go away. Overall, he explained the reason for the removal as follows:
The Postal Service periodically conducts density tests on mail collection boxes. Those boxes that have fewer than 25 pieces of mail in them per day over a two-week period are considered for removal. Nation-wide, First-Class mail volume has been decreasing significantly over the last few years, some eight billion pieces a year since 2001. We have stepped up the pace on doing density tests. Currently, we are removing collection boxes throughout the City of Seattle. In fact, collection boxes around the country are being removed as a cost-cutting measure. The U.S. Postal Service is instituating other cost-cutting measures as well. We lost about $2.8 billion in FY 2008 and expect to perhaps lose that much again this FY.
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