BERKELEY, CA — U.S. Postal Service (USPS) will conduct a public meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 20, 2012, from 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., at the Berkeley High School Auditorium, 1980 Allston Way, to get public input on the proposal to relocate the Berkeley Post Office.

The public meeting is being held to explain the relocation proposal and hear comments from customers. If the move is approved, there would be no reduction in service to the residents and businesses of Berkeley, nor any impact on letter carrier delivery, and no change to Post Office Box numbers or ZIP Codes, and our goal is to retain all PO Box numbers.

Written comments may be submitted until December 7, 2012 to:

Diana Alvarado
Facilities Implementation – Pacific Area
U.S. Postal Service
1300 Evans Ave. Ste. 200
San Francisco CA 94188-8200

The reason behind the proposal is the necessary realignment of USPS infrastructure as a result of a 26 percent drop in total mail volume over the past three years, largely brought about by the diversion to electronic communication and business transactions.

The Postal Service is in a very serious financial situation and is facing insolvency. Every opportunity to reduce expenses and generate revenue is being considered in order to maintain universal service to our customers. If this relocation is approved, USPS anticipates selling the current Berkeley Post Office building.

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A self-supporting government enterprise, the U.S. Postal Service is the only delivery service that reaches every address in the nation — 151 million residences, businesses and Post Office™ Boxes. The Postal Service™ receives no tax dollars for operating expenses, and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations. With 32,000 retail locations and the most frequently visited website in the federal government, usps.com®, the Postal Service has annual revenue of more than $65 billion and delivers nearly 40 percent of the world’s mail. If it were a private sector company, the U.S. Postal Service would rank 35th in the 2011 Fortune 500. In 2011, Oxford Strategic Consulting ranked the U.S. Postal Service number one in overall service performance of the posts in the top 20 wealthiest nations in the world. Black Enterprise and Hispanic Business magazines ranked the Postal Service as a leader in workforce diversity. The Postal Service has been named the Most Trusted Government Agency for six years and the sixth Most Trusted Business in the nation by the Ponemon Institute.

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