Rally to Save Venice Main Post Office
A rally will be held Saturday from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. to save the historic Venice Main Post Office.
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A rally will be held Saturday afternoon to save the 1939 Venice Main Post Office and its historic "Story of Venice" mural.
The rally will be held from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. at the Venice Main Post Office, 1601 Main St. at the west end of Windward Circle.
The U.S. Postal Service plans to close the post office and sell it with some of its services being relocated to the nearby Venice Carrier Annex. The Postal Regulatory Commission recently failed to acknowledge its jurisdiction over the closure and it has been designated as a "relocation," which has stripped it of protection from a moratorium applied to most of the 3,700 post offices on the nationwide closure consideration list, said Jed Pauker, a rally organizer.
The planned closure has rallied a diverse group of Venice interest groups who all support keeping the post office open. Those groups include: Free Venice Beachhead, Venice Arts Council, Venice Chamber of Commerce, the Venice Stakeholders Association, Los Angeles Conservancy, City Councilman Bill Rosendahl, Congresswoman Janice Hahn and the Venice Neighborhood Council.
An online pettion to save the post office has more than 400 signatures and legal challenges also are being considered.
The 1939 art deco post office was built during the Great Depression under the federal Works Project Administration and is the last WPA building remaining in downtown Venice. The post office features a mural known as the "Story of Venice" or the "First Thirty Years of Venice's History" and is one of two remaining murals by artist Edward Biberman.
The Venice Main Post Office recently has had low levels of service and has not "historically met the USPS' standard of providing window services to the public within five minutes," Hahn wrote in a November letter to the Postal Regulatory Commission. The plans to close three customer service windows and relocate two customer service windows to the Venice Carrier Annex is "unacceptable," Hahn wrote.
vincent rogozyk
8:47 am on Saturday, February 18, 2012
I don't think we can fight the fact that Usps can't afford 2 locations in Venice; but, could this building become a landmark or anything that'd save it from being demolished by the next owner? It'd be a great place for a museum, even for a restaurant; where we would actually appreciate the mural even more.
Taco Head
4:44 pm on Saturday, February 18, 2012
Close it down and make a Taco Bell out of it.
Dean Kennedy
11:31 am on Monday, February 20, 2012
When the representatives from the Post Office spoke at a public hearing, they said that as part of the deed of the property - the mural inside the building cannot be touched. It is officially part of the historic structure - which is officially a historic building. Also, they said closing that office and moving it across the street would save over 1 million dollars per year. It seems so sadly typical of Venetians that they don't listen, they don't retain facts and just want to run around like chickens with their heads cut off screaming in terror about situations that don't exist. The mural will be fine. It does not make financial sense to keep the poorly run facility in that building. If you can't afford a better solution, let the current owners of the property move on in the old American fashion of doing what they need to do with the property that they own. The neighbors have no legal right to it. What's more is they can't afford to make any constructive improvements themselves, they only know how to whine. Let it go.
Jed Pauker
11:51 pm on Monday, February 20, 2012
Briefly: Those "facts" supplied at the public hearing were incorrect.
Fact: The building does not currently enjoy any historic designation whatsoever. We are working to achieve that level of protection at the least.
Fact: Communications received from USPS Network Operations Vice-President David Williams projected the annual savings from closing Venice Main Post Office not at $1 million but at approximately $135,000 per year. That's about the annual salary and benefits cost of one mid-level USPS manager.
Restoring adequate supervision, retail services and groundskeeping to the facility will remedy its current service challenges. Moving a fraction of adequate services to the Annex will only continue to frustrate and alienate postal customers.
This public facility's owners - you and I - have every legal right to it. To take it and its proven ability to support itself from us is wrong. Preventing the Postal Service from earning income by closing facilities is a sure route to ruin.
Help save our Venice Post Office. Sign the petition: http://www.change.org/petitions/rep-henry-waxman-save-the-venice-post-office.
Write your Senators and Rep. Waxman:
www.boxer.senate.gov/en/contact
www.feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/e-mail-me
Rep. Henry Waxman, 2204 Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, D.C., 20515; (202) 225-3976
Ask them to stop the sale. Tell them to support HR 1351, and to restore truthful recording of USPS's profitable state.
Jed Pauker
12:05 am on Sunday, February 26, 2012
From Jim Smith, leading the Coalition to Save Venice Post Office:
Dear friends of the Venice Post Office,
There's lots happening with our Post Office:
1. As you may know, our Attorney Elaine Mittleman filed a Petition for Appeal at the D.C. Federal Circuit Court on Wednesday. This action asks the court to review the dismissal by the Postal Regulatory Commission of appeals filed by Venice Stakeholders Association, Mark Ryavec, Greta Cobar, Jonathan Kaplan, Sue Kaplan, Jed Pauker, James Smith, and Free Venice Beachhead newspaper.
2. We're hopeful the USPS will take our post office off the real estate market while the suit is being reviewed. Any sale at this time could be overturned by the court, if it so chooses.
3. The Coalition raised more than $1,000 in one day toward the legal expenses. Thank you, thank you for contributing.
4. The Rally on Saturday, Feb. 18 was a big success. It was covered by two TV stations and included some great speakers. Suzy Williams premiered her new song, "We're POed at the PO." Councilmember Bill Rosendahl and Terry Stoller, President of the California Local of the American Postal Workers Union joined us and gave rousing speeches, as did several other speakers, including Mark Ryavec, Emily Winters, Jed Pauker, Suzanne Zada, Greta Cobar, Linda Lucks, Pegarty Long, Karl Abrams, Ivonne Guzman and Amanda Seward. We were also joined by a well-dressed George Washington, carrying a 13-star flag and riding a Segway.
Jed Pauker
12:09 am on Sunday, February 26, 2012
5. Our Coalition filmmaker Pegarty Long did an excellent rush job getting a video of the rally on YouTube. If you didn't make the rally, now you can enjoy it in your own home. It's complete, except the very beginning. See it at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VGA-ixgQ24&feature=youtu.be
6. Some of us are meeting with an aide to Sen. Dianne Feinstein on Monday to discuss how she can help save our post office.
7. We're asking that you send a message to both California Senators and to Representative Henry Waxman who is running to represent our newly drawn Congressional district:
www.boxer.senate.gov/en/contact
www.feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/e-mail-me
https://waxmanforms.house.gov/Contact/ContactForm.htm
Rep. Henry Waxman, 2204 Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, D.C., 20515; (202) 225-3976
Thanks for your continued active support.
Jim Smith
PS - If you haven't already, please consider signing the petition:
http://www.change.org/petitions/rep-henry-waxman-save-the-venice-post-office.
dofsmoild
9:55 am on Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Salut à tous !
Je cherche à pratiquer une activite artistique comme le dessin ou la peinture..
vous me conseillerai quoi pour debuter ?
dofsmoild
2:02 am on Thursday, April 12, 2012
Oui en effet, une activité "3d" me parait plus séduisante mais peut être que cela est plus difficile et plus couteux pour commencer...
Je dispose d'un budget de 300€/mois tt compris..