Image of Roosevelt Island Post Office Conducting Business As Usual Today As reported in previous posts, the Roosevelt Island Post Office is one of over three thousand nationwide Post Offices that are being considered for possible closing in the future. This afternoon, Roosevelt Island residents and elected officials including Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, State Senator Jose Serrano, Assembly Member Micah Kellner, NYC Council Member Jessica Lappin and Postal Union officials staged a protest rally in front of the Roosevelt Island Post Office.

Image of today’s Roosevelt Island Post Office Protest Rally Here’s what happened.

You Tube Video of Roosevelt Island Post Office Rally Part 1

You Tube Video of Roosevelt Island Post Office Rally Part 2

You Tube Video of Roosevelt Island Protest Rally Part 3 Congresswoman Maloney reported that over 2 thousand signatures have been obtained on petitions protesting the possible closing of the Roosevelt Island Post Office. If you wish to keep the Roosevelt Island Post Office open and have not signed the petition yet, please do so. Copies of the petition may be available in your building lobby. If not, Roosevelt Island resident Jonathan Kalkin placed the petition online and you can sign it here. From Mr. Kalkin:

Hey Everyone,

As you know the Roosevelt Island Post Office may be closing. I have been going out getting paper signatures with many of you, but I thought it would be good to make an online version of the same petition to distribute to everyone as well. Please sign the petition, email the link to your friends/buildings email lists, post the petition link to FACEBOOK and TWITTER as well. We need to get a lot of signatures.

Here is the link to the petition , Sign and Pass on!

Roosevelt Island Operating Corp ( RIOC ) President Leslie Torres announced during the protest rally that petitions will be made available at the RIOC offices (591 Main Street) as well. As concerned Roosevelt Island residents said today – SAVE OUR POST OFFICE!!!! UPDATE 6 PM – Mr. Kalkin and Roosevelt Island Residents Association ( RIRA ) President Matt Katz urge Roosevelt Islanders to sign the petition to save Roosevelt Island Post Office.

NYC City Council Member Jessica Lappin issued the following statement regarding today’s rally:

Our message today is signed, sealed and deliveredsave Roosevelt Islands post office. The Postal Service needs to look beyond the distance on a map, at the unique needs of this community

Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney’s office sends the following statement too:

Today, U.S. Rep. Carolyn Maloney, State Senator Jos M. Serrano, Assembly Member Micah Kellner, City Council Member Jessica Lappin, Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation President Leslie Torres, Roosevelt Island Residents Association President Matthew Katz, Chuck Zlatkin of the American Postal Workers Union, and Roosevelt Island community leaders and residents rallied outside the Roosevelt Island Station to urge the United States Postal Service to keep open the only post office located on Roosevelt Island. Maloney and her fellow elected officials and community members have collected more than 1,600 signatures from Roosevelt Islanders who want to keep their post office open for business, and plan on delivering the petitions to the Postal Service later this week.

At todays event, Maloney also urged Islanders to reach out to the Postal Service directly, and issued the following list of actions people can take to save Roosevelt Island Station:

WHAT YOU CAN DO TO SAVE YOUR POST OFFICE

Sign a petition, or create one that your neighbors and friends can sign, urging the Postal Service to keep Roosevelt Island Station open.
Petitions can be sent to:

Mr. Patrick Donahoe

U.S. Postmaster General

475 LEnfant Plaza West, SW

Washington, DC 20260

Write a letter to Postmaster Donahoe (at the address above);

Call the Postal Service at 1-800-275-8777 (Open Monday to Saturday); or

Click here to e-mail the Postal Service.

Contact the USPS via the methods above and request a public hearing, so that USPS officials can hear your views in person.
In July, the Postal Service announced that it was studying the possibility of closing Roosevelt Island Station and 3,652 other post offices nationwide. The USPS placed Roosevelt Island Station on its list of potential closures because Roosevelt Island Station had less than $600,000 in revenue last year, and there are more than 15 alternate postal access points within a ten-mile radius. However, as Maloney and others argued today, Roosevelt Island is home to many seniors and persons with disabilities who could not walk to the next-nearest post office nearly a mile-and-a-half away in Queens, and the only other postal access point on the Island itself is a Duane Reade that sells stamps hardly a substitute for a full post office. A final decision on which post offices will be closed is expected later this year.

Earlier this month, Maloney and her fellow elected officials wrote to U.S. Postmaster General Patrick R. Donahoe urging him to keep Roosevelt Island Station open, and requesting that USPS hold a public hearing on the potential closure so affected New Yorkers could express their views. A copy of that letter follows.

As the name suggests, Roosevelt Island is an island. The post office has identified alternate post offices in a ten-mile radius but other than a Duane Reade that sells stamps, all the other alternatives are located across the East River, a swift-moving body of water. While I love the people of Roosevelt Island, they cant walk on water, so they wont be able to walk to the next-closest branch, said Maloney.

Roosevelt Island Station serves residents of a community with many senior citizens, persons with disabilities, and Section 8 recipients. The island was specifically designed to be virtually car-free and, indeed, very few residents of this community own cars. Almost all postal customers using Roosevelt Island Station walk there or use wheelchairs, Maloney added. So, today, we are asking to Postal Service to look at the needs of this neighborhood, the nature of the customer base here on Roosevelt Island, and the long distances people will have to travel by foot to reach the nearest alternate postal facility and conclude, as we have, that this vital community post office must remain open for business. Save our post office!

“Access to a post office is a right that most New Yorkers take for granted, and it is inconceivable that such a right might now be taken away from the people who live on Roosevelt Island. I am proud to join with Rep. Carolyn Maloney and many other elected officials, community leaders and residents today in urging the United States Postal Service to keep open the only such office serving this important community. Forcing residents to walk one and a half miles to the next nearest post office, in Queens, is no solution at all — not for seniors, not for persons with disabilities, or anyone else who lives on Roosevelt Island, said Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer.

State Senator Jos M. Serrano said, Closing the only post office on Roosevelt Island simply does not make sense. For the most vulnerable Island residents, traveling to Astoria or Manhattan to drop off mail is clearly not an option. I urge the United States Postal Service to ensure that the Roosevelt Island Post Office remain open for business, as its closure would deeply inconvenience all those living and working on the island.

Under this plan the US Postal Service literally expects Roosevelt Islanders to walk on water to get their mail, said Assembly Member Kellner. But Islanders shouldnt need a miracle to keep this post office open.

“Our message is signed, sealed and delivered — keep Roosevelt Island Station open,” said Council Member Jessica Lappin.

“Roosevelt Island is a small town community that relies on the services of the USPS every day,” said Leslie Torres, President of the Roosevelt Island Corporation. “Closing the only station on the island will create an incredible hardship especially on the elderly and disabled residents that use the station for their everyday postal needs.”

The Roosevelt Island Post Office serves a special population in a planned community that includes a significant number of low-income residents, seniors and the disabled, who should not have to take public transportation to visit a post office. In addition, we host an international population of diplomats, United Nations and foreign mission workers with specialized postal needs requiring full post office services. We cant walk to the next nearest station; we are an island surrounded by water. Swimming for stamps is not an option, said Matthew Katz, President of the Roosevelt Island Residents Association.

Below is the letter written by Roosevelt Island elected officials to the Postmaster General. Click Here For More COALITION OF ELECTED OFFICIALS OF ROOSEVELT ISLAND, NY
c/o Congresswoman Carolyn B. Maloney
1651 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10128