Altadena’s U.S. Postal Service–Are You Satisfied?

Mail is something of a miracle and a mystery. To me it is, anyway.  How that humble envelope can set off from one house and, against all odds--drought, windstorms, blizzards and human error--perform a perfect landing at the right address somewhere far away.

But it happens every second of every day for the price of–well, whatever the price is of the stamp nowadays, as it’s not actually printed on the stamp. Apparently the P.O. fears we’ll suffer sticker shock. But 40 or 50 cents wouldn’t send me reeling.  Especially since the last time a letter of mine went missing was well over three years ago.

But according to local resident Lori Paul, not all Altadena neighborhoods can claim the same level of service.  The recent and on-going USPS re-organization has resulted in some carrier re-assignments at the local level. According to Paul:

“In the process of reassigning the 'new' routes, seniority with the USPS has taken a backseat to merit and good performance. ... Unfortunately in this process the Chaney Trail Neighborhood has gotten the short end of the stick. Several times we've had to re-deliver mail incorrectly put in our box to the proper address. ...

“After finding First Class mail we wanted to go out left in our box among our daily mail several times, even though we had the flag up on our box, I finally complained directly to our Post Office on Lake Avenue.“

And Paul has not found the USPS particularly helpful or responsive.

What about you? Have you noticed a change in the quality of your postal service? Keeping in mind that whatever changes you may have noticed thus far are certainly not the last we’ll see as the USPS struggles to stay afloat.