BY DAN RUBIN INQUIRER COLUMNIST What happened to the mailboxes? That’s what Republican committeeman Jim Finnegan wanted to know this summer as he made his twice-a-week rounds through the narrow streets around Kensington and Allegheny.
“There used to be three in front of the 7-Eleven at Kensington and Ontario,” Finnegan says. “Then one at
Jasper and Ontario, one at Frankford and Ontario, and then one at Jasper and Westmoreland.”
That was a few months ago. Now they’re gone. All told, he says, a dozen mailboxes from his division have disappeared.
The U.S. Postal Service says it’s aware of the situation.
It’s the one taking the boxes.
This is one of those modern swirling global things: Spurred by the growth of the Internet and competition from rival shipping companies, the Postal Service is shifting its resources, concentrating where business is busiest.
Each year, fewer people mail first-class letters. More send parcels. So the Postal Service has been inventorying its iconic blue collection boxes around the country and flagging for removal those that get 25 or fewer letters a day. MORE
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