By an edhat reader
After sustaining some kind of damage to its concrete base, the convenient drive-by Postal Service letter drop box in Hope Ranch on Las Palmas Drive was removed.
Any ideas if it will be replaced or is it permanently gone? These blue painted street letter boxes, once common, seem to onlyexist in front of post offices themselves.
Be careful what you wish for. The USPS gave our community the oldest, rustiest, most graffitied storage box they could find and put it next to our already ragged looking mail box at our shopping center. We asked them 3 months ago to come out and at least paint over the tagging. We offered to paint ourselves and we were read the riot act if we touched it. So 3 months later, we are still waiting for some action.
FITZ: Are you in Goleta or within Santa Barbara City limits? Trying to figure out who one can call re: tagging in Goleta is extremely daunting. The whole City of Goleta/Noleta/Goleta (but county) thing makes it all ridiculously complicated. If you know you’re in City of Goleta, call Bob Morgenstern: (805) 968-6769. If you’re within the city limits of Santa Barbara, call the graffiti hotline: (805) 897-2513. Bob can direct you, if you’re not City of Goleta. ————- If it were me, I’d just paint it myself. But I guess that whole federal thing might make that a bit nerve-racking. When our local drop-off box (Santa Barbara, City) was tagged, we called it in. The “abatement” was swift, but you should see the paint job. I’m sure you could do a better job.
Total bummer, I hope its replaced…its my go-to box. Looks like it got sideswiped and the the concrete and box connected together were dislodged from the ground from what I could tell.
Think about it! It will be replaced. Things take time
I was unsuccessful in convincing the postmaster and our Congress Member to install a box in our area of Montecito. I was told there was no need. So in order to post mail one must drive to the upper Village or to Coast Village Road.
The head of the USPS and his allies in Congress and I don’t agree on the value and mission of the postal service. I see it as an essential aspect of our country’s infrastructure. They see it as a peripheral expense and don’t care about serving the common good. It’s sickening. Thank goodness for our local carriers and postal workers! They DO care and serve us well.
I have seen other locations where the post office has not replaced curbside mailboxes that were damaged and, in one case, a blue mailbox near the Fairview shopping center that was stolen.
I have tried a couple of times to find a USPS.Com web page that lists the location of public mailboxes but, so far have had no success.
Cutting back on public mailboxes seems to be the method being used to either cut costs and/or deal with mail theft. Overall, not a good situation for those of us who wish to use the US mail service.
TJTom: You can find Post Office and Postal Drop Box locations at https://tools.usps.com/find-location.htm.
That site will also allow you to learn operating hours for the P.O. and pickup times at the mail boxes.
Thank you CTGSB for the great link. I don’t know how I missed it during my previous searches.