Crotona Park Post Office to Close April 22; More Bronx Closures Loom

By Rachel Sander

The United States Postal Service has decided to close the Bronx’s Crotona Park Post Office at 1682 Boston Road and a spokesperson warned that more closures could be on the way.

Van Nest Post Office at 715 Morris Park Ave., Oak Point at 839 East 149 Street, as well as the processing unit of the Bronx General Post Office on 149th and Grand Concourse are all on the "consolidation" list, which means they are on the chopping block. A decision could be made on Van Nest and Oak Point in a matter of weeks, but spokesperson Darleen Reid said the decision on whether or not to close the Bronx processing plant was still more than six months away.  

Last week, the Norwood News reported on the reopening of the Mosholu Post Office on Jerome Avenue. At the end of the article, Reid said: “The public should know we are looking at stations and branches nationwide and in the Bronx for closures. The volume of mail is plummeting and we need to save money any way we can and one way we can do this is by consolidation.”

Today, Reid confirmed Crotona Park Station will close on April 22. Reid assured us that a public service announcement will be made to inform the public of closure on website and posted at the office. She said this decision is final.

Bronx News Roundup, Dec. 15

The City Council's decision to vote no to Related Companies' Kingsbridge Armory redevelopment proposal could spur living wage legislation. (The Web is awash this morning with articles and opinion pieces about the vote - some praising it, others slamming it. We'll link to them in a seperate post this afternoon.)

In other news:

A former Broadway actress has opened a dance studio in Throgs Neck.

Urban Health Plan has received $12 million in stimulus money to expand its health clinic on Southern Boulevard.

A former director of the Bronx Conservatory of Music, a non-profit which offers cheap music lessons to kids from low-income families, has been charged with pocketing grant money.

Three Bronx post offices - Crotona Park, Van Nest, and Oak Point - are still in danger of closing. Originally, seven Bronx locations were on the chopping block, but the list has been trimmed.

Last year, Ocelot Capital, a notorious (and now defunct) private equity group, abandoned dozens of apartment buildings in the Bronx. Recently, some of the building came under new ownership and tenants there are hopeful. But in the other buildings - now owned by Hunter Property Management - tenants say their complaints go unheard, and that the apartments are deteriorating. More here in the Mount Hope Monitor.

Despite the poor economy, New York City hospital execs earned seriously big bucks last year. Here in the Bronx, Bronx Lebanon Hosptial CEO Miguel Fuentes Jr., came out on top, with a $4.8 million pay-package. It would take someone earning $10-an-hour (the so-called living wage) about 250 years to make a similar amount.

City Island residents are up in arms over noisy gunfire and bombs blasts from a nearby NYPD training facility.

National List is Shortened, But Bronx Post Offices Remain on Chopping Block

After a round of hearings, the United States Postal Service (USPS) recently released an updated and shortened list of offices nationwide that face possible closures due to decreases in mail volume. The list was whittled down from 417 to 371. But despite fervent opposition, the names of all seven Bronx locations originally listed remain slated for closure.

Included in the Bronx bunch is the Botanical Station, which the Bedford Park community has made clear it won't let go without a fight.

Bedford Park resident and Community Board 7 member, Barbara Stronczer, has spearheaded the fight to save the Botanical Station by collecting more than 700 petition signatures and rallying the support of local officials. Fernando Tirado, district manager of CB7, recently spoke on the station's behalf at a Postal Closure hearing.

Stronczer was surprised and saddened to hear about the latest listings. She is at a loss of how to proceed from here.

"I'm not sure what to do," she said. "They made up their minds without the community."

Going forward, Stonzcer says its going to depend on those in government positions that she had reached out to.

"You count on elected officials at this point and and see what they plan to do next."

According to a USPS representative, the fate of the Bronx offices are still under review and no final decisions will be made until 2010.

Will Botanical Station Post Office (and 6 Others) Close?

The discussion regarding the possible closings of seven Bronx Post Offices continues.

The Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC), an independent agency that exercises regulatory oversight over the US Postal Service (USPS), held a field hearing last Wednesday at Fordham University in order to make recommendations concerning the post offices in jeopardy.

The PRC does not manage postal services, but according to a spokesperson with the organization, “provides an advisory opinion and brings transparency to the public” pertaining to closure policies.

Last week, commissioners of the PRC heard the testimony of 11 witnesses, representing a range of interests including those of government officials, postal representatives, and private organizations both in favor and against the consolidation of postal services.

State Senator Jeffrey D. Kleim and Aurelia Greene, Deputy Bronx Borough President, both said in statements that the closures would create unnecessary hardships for citizens of the Bronx, many of whom depend on the postal services for all their banking needs. Greene affirmed that the seven offices in the Bronx account for 17 percent of all facilities nation wide.

“Of all the ingredients of a neighborhood, the post office is one the most relevant facilities to the local citizen,” said Greene. “ It is not only a service location for the distribution of mail but the most local representation of the government and how it serves the people.”

The Botanical Station, located on Webster Avenue in Bedford Park, which is heavily used by senior citizens and immigrants, had the most representation speaking on its behalf to keep its doors from closing.

“My office has received nothing but criticism from local residents who will be impacted by this proposal,” said Fernando Tirado, district manager for Community Board 7. “For these seniors (referring to the two senior centers and three senior citizen housing complexes located nearby), who are mostly on a fixed income and often have limited means to travel, this station is the only viable source for their postal services.”

Annelen Madigan, a social worker at Rose Hill Apartments, a low-income, senior housing complex just around the block from the station on Kazimiroff Blvd expressed her concerns, “I hope the reasons for closing are not discriminatory to lower income areas."

Tirado also questioned USPS claims it would save money by consolidating the Botanical services with those of the Fordham station. According to his understanding, the station was locked into a six-year lease and would be required, in accordance with the Postal Workers’ Union, to relocate all of its employees.

“What real savings are they offering?” he said.
William Grygus, who spoke on behalf of the USPS, stated that all postal leases have a sublease option.

Roberto Vayas, who is the Botanical Station’s lease holder and owner of the welding business next store, said he would have to check if they could legally sublease or not.

In support of current downsizing policies, Wendy Smith, who spoke on behalf of Publishers Clearinghouse, said, “Such appropriate reduction in operating reductions are critical to avoid accelerating the downward mail volume spiral that will persist if postage rates continue to increase in the near term.”

According to a PRC spokesperson, there is no specific deadline for the release of the official opinion of the PRC, but will likely be made public very soon. There will be another hearing held in Washington D.C. tomorrow.

The Norwood News wrote about the potential closing of the Botanical Station in August.

The Times had this story over the weekend.

Bronx News Roundup, September 29

Refugees from Bhutan have come to find a new home in the Bronx. Although many Bhutanese refugees are scattered throughout the Bronx, a large population is concentrated in one apartment building on University Avenue, according to The New York Times. The eight Bhutanese families living in the building share meals, job tips and more. Bhutanese refugees started moving into the United States in 2007 when Nepal refused to give them citizenship. The United States agreed to resettle 60,000 of these refugees and so far, about 170 Bhutanese have moved to New York.

The New York Times recently published a piece about Bronx residents lamenting the possible closing of the Botanical Station post office in Bedford Park. The Norwood News published an article about this issue in August.

If you are looking for an affordable, pleasant-looking apartment, The New York Times suggests looking in Mount Hope.

Bronx Assemblyman and Democratic Party chair Carl Heastie is teaming up with the Brooklyn Democratic Leader, Vito Lopez, to see if they can round up the 26 votes on the City Council needed to oust City Council Speaker Christine Quinn from the speaker's chair, according to the New York Post.

Speaking of Carl Heastie, the Assemblyman almost came to blows with Parkchester Assemblyman Peter Rivera last Thursday at a judicial nominating convention, according to the Daily News' Bob Kappstatter. The fight concerned Rivera's charges that Heastie was including him in decisions over judicial nominations for state Supreme Court. Kappstatter reports that the row could be a precursor to an effort to depose Heastie from the chairmanship.

Tom Robbins at the Village Voice also weighs in on the judicial nominating convention, pointing out that Stanley Schlein is still in the thick of things, despite from being barred from receiving court-appointed cases in 2006.

Meanwhile, a Heastie staffer is getting is getting noticed. His chief of staff, Marricka Scott-McFadden, was named as one of the newspaper City Hall's Rising Stars: 40 under 40. Also included in the list was another Bronx Assembly Member Vanessa Gibson.

Consultants hired by Morton Williams supermarket have come down hard criticizing the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) released by Related Companies, the developer for the Kingsbridge Armory. The consultants claim that the development will cause overwhelming amounts of traffic congestion.

Seven Bronx Post Offices Could Close

View Endangered Bronx Post Offices in a larger map

The US Postal Service is considering closing 677 post offices nationwide, in an effort to correct a $7 billion deficit. Fourteen of these locations are in New York City, seven of which are in the Bronx. (Click on the envelopes above for branch names and street addresses).

A final decision will be made in October, according to the USPS.

Congressman Jose E. Serrano told The Times last week he was deeply concerned. But what do you think? Do you frequent any of the post offices on the endangered list? Are they usually crowded, or could you hear a pin drop? How important is your post office to your neighborhood?

Threats, earlier this year, to close locations in Soho and Washington Heights led to protests from local residents. So far, we haven’t heard of anything similar in the Bronx, though the Bedford Mosholu Community Association and the BoogieDowner blog have started a petition to stop the axing of the Botanical branch on Webster Avenue. More here.

According to some articles (but not others), an eighth Bronx post office - The Hub at 633 St. Ann's Ave. - could also be closed. We'll try and get clarification on that.