Downtown Arlington post office may face cancellation

To be or not to be: That is the question for Arlington’s downtown post office, which the Postal Service has placed on its official endangered list, much to the consternation of the city’s downtown business community.

Local lore in Arlington has it that in the 1920s when the Postal Service declined to build a new post office in the city because of inadequate population, the mayor of that era protested the decision.

The problem, the mayor said, was that the Postal Service had not considered the population in the Parkhill Addition, which he said was several hundred people.

He won the appeal and the post office was built. Never mind that the Parkhill Addition was actually a cemetery, its residents neither receiving nor sending any mail.  Since then a Downtown post office building – at various locations – has been a fixture in the city for close to a century, mostly serving the business community and a large selection of what might be termed old timers.

This might not be the case much longer. Though Arlington no longer has an inadequate population problem – the current estimate is closing in at 380,000 residents – it has several post offices spread throughout the city, all of which are newer and more modern than the half-century old current downtown office, which has now been placed on a long list of post offices nationwide under consideration for closing.

The postal service, leaking money and looking at an estimated $7 billion deficit nationwide, clearly has to do something to improve its business model. But many local residents, led by Arlington’s downtown business community, are trying their best to make sure that the facility remains open.

“Post offices have always been a part of downtowns across this country, and the Downtown Arlington Post Office is a vital part of doing business here,” said Maggie Campbell, executive director of Downtown Arlington Management Corp. “It serves our international students at UTA, our Downtown business community, our nearby lower-to-moderate income neighborhoods and citizens around the community that expect to find a post office in the Downtown area.”

Campbell, too, frets about the long-term consequences of the possible closing.

“Since we are focused on redeveloping the central Arlington area, it (the post office) serves an important economic development purpose for recruiting and retaining corporations and businesses downtown. It needs to stay here,” she said.

It’s a sentiment that’s picked up steam, and a possibility that has some longtime downtown Arlington business residents steaming.

“I’ve had a post office box downtown for 45 years,” notes developer and former Arlington Chamber of Commerce Chairman Jerry Jordon. “I don’t even have mail delivered to my home anymore.”

Jordon, whose company resides in a new office complex just two blocks from the Downtown post office, fears that if the closing takes place it will be a major setback for the area’s economic development efforts.

“We’ve made a lot of progress downtown,” Jordon said, eying a development map that shows a plethora of new construction ranging from the Cowboys Stadium and Levitt Pavilion to new restaurants. His finger traces the route of Center Street, now connecting to Interstate 30. He clicks the site of UT-Arlington’s new multi-purpose arena to be.

He predicts new construction booms in proximity to the stadium, all of which is currently served by the Downtown post office.

“I think we all know that the Postal Service has to do something to improve the performance of its business model,” Jordon said. “But the downtown Arlington post office needs to stay and not just for sentimental reason. The Downtown area has several thousand employees and more are on

the way. We’re finally showing some

real progress.”

Longtime Downtown property owner and manager Kay King shares Jordon’s concerns.

“The people I’ve talked to about the possible closing are in disbelief and say it will never happen,” King said. “But I don’t think that can be accepted as a fact. Our post office is one the cornerstones to our Downtown. How many towns do you know of that the Downtown does not have a post office?  I thought we learned our lesson when the train depot vanished. I've heard of picketing city hall. But do people picket post offices?”

They may not picket – then again they might – but a protest to the possible closing in underway.

Campbell said a letter-writing campaign is under way, mostly directed at Linda Welch, vice president of delivery and post office operations (457 Lenfant Plaza No. 7116, Washington 20260-7116).

Petitions also are being circulated at three downtown Arlington locations: J. Gilligan’s Bar and Grill (Mary and Abram streets), Bird’s Copies (across the street from the post office) and also the Coffee Haus, 210 S. Mesquite St.

The deadline for a Postal Service decision is coming up Sept. 30.

“That’s a pretty fast trigger on things and maybe we can’t stop the closing,” Jordon said. “But I’m pretty sure if we do nothing that the ax will definitely fall.

okcarter@bizpress.net