Press Release:
Dear Supporters Of The Downtown Post Office:
As you know, the downtown Pensacola post office is on the chopping block. Despite a meeting with almost 100 individuals opposing closure of the downtown post office this past Tuesday evening, the closure process is still moving rapidly forward.
If we are to have any chance to derail this process and save the Downtown Pensacola post office, the businesses and residents that use the downtown post office must help us make the economic case for keeping the post office. Towards that end, please take a few minutes to write a letter, in your own words, to:
Postmaster Stanley Walker
1400 W. Jordan Street
Pensacola, FL 32522-9998
Explain how that decision will negatively impact your business AND the postal service revenues. Please put it on your company ( if a business or a government) stationary and include the following information:
1) How your business/government relies on the downtown post office (i.e., how frequently you use the post office and for what)
2) State the services your business purchases (i.e., certified mail, overnight or priority mail) and
3) How much your business or firm currently spends annually at the downtown Pensacola post office.
4) If your business uses a post office box, it is also very important that your letter indicate that a move will cause your business great inconvenience. If the relocation of your post office box to Jordan Street will cause you to cancel it and go to carrier delivery, please tell them that.
5) If the consolidated post office on Jordan Street will be so inconvenient for your business that you will have to secure mailing and delivery services from a private provider instead of the postal service, please tell them that also.
All of the above are important “business decision†points that the postal service needs to hear. Please keep your letter to one page with no attachments. Your letter needs to be mailed as soon as possible (no later than August 28, 2009).
Please also forward a copy of your letter to Senator Bill Nelson (111 N. Adams Street, Tallahassee, Florida 32301) whom we have asked to intervene. Also, please send a copy of your letter to the Downtown Improvement Board at 41 N. Jefferson Street – Suite 401, Pensacola, FL 32502. If there are any questions, contact 434-5371. Please share this email with other downtown businesses or residents who you believe desire the continuation of a post office in downtown Pensacola.
Thank you in advance for your assistance with this important matter.
Did You Know…
• Downtown Pensacola has always had a post office since the 1800s. The original post office in this part of the state was in downtown Pensacola.
• Of the five post offices in Pensacola, the downtown station branch is the third most profitable.
• There are 607 private sector businesses and 558 residential households ( 2002 residents) and almost 10,000 employees within Downtown Pensacola that depend upon the post office.
• Many of our downtown residents walk to the post office for services because they lack a car to drive themselves.
• Downtown Pensacola is the only neighborhood in the City that is actually adding households and residents; but it is the one that will be without a post office
• The proposed location for the consolidation of the downtown postal station ( Jordan Street) is three (3) miles one way from the existing downtown post office – or 6 miles round trip.
• Scores of our downtown businesses and professional firms visit the post office multiple times each day. Having to travel such a distance would seriously impact their productivity.
• Downtown Pensacola is one of the few areas of our community where the density is great enough that it makes more sense to walk instead of drive.
• Putting so many additional vehicles on the street for multiple times each day ( driving to the post office on Jordan Street) would negatively impact our environmental quality.
• The downtown post office is an anchor for commerce and a community focal point for downtown and Pensacola.
• The intersection outside the downtown station has one of the highest volume of pedestrian traffic in all of Pensacola.
• Many of the 1948 postal box holders in the downtown station have held their PO boxes for decades with some holding it for more than 45 years.
• Downtown revitalization has been a major goal of the City and the Community for many years. Much progress is being made. To lose an anchor like the post office would be devastating.
• The decision to close/consolidate will be made by early October 2009. Actual closure is planned for sometime before September 30, 2010.
