This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Community Corner

What's Going On With Mail Delivery in Evanston?

Neighbors say they have new carriers every week, mail gets delivered at a different time each day, houses are skipped and sometimes the mail simply doesn't come at all.

Recently, some Evanston neighborhood email listserves lit up with complaints about slow and inconsistent mail service. I was intrigued, especially since we've been receiving mail after 6pm for quite some time, not to mention the fact that we lost our longtime mail carrier, Nenette. She wasn't just a carrier. She treated her route the way a good teacher treats her classroom, with responsibility and kindness. Nenette knew neighborhood dogs by name and pointed out that your flower pot looked thirsty. She knew her customers and stopped to talk to them. She’d leave holiday cards…though not because she wanted anything back. She was genuine and connected to our neighborhood. And then, about a year ago, Nenette was moved to another route. It felt like losing a member of the family. She left a sincere farewell note for her customers that brought tears to my eyes. I see her now and then, delivering mail in a nearby neighborhood, and I always wave hello. She smiles and remembers, I do the same. I miss Nenette.

Want more stories like this one? Follow Evanston Patch on Facebook.

After months of different carriers and countless mistakes, we have a new mail carrier who's finally settled into our route. My dog still barks at him like he’s a terrorist, but at least I’m getting my mail before I start making dinner.

Find out what's happening in Evanstonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

So I wanted to know: What's going on? Is anyone else experiencing this problem?

While not everyone's having problems, it looks like I'm not alone. Here's a sample of what some of my neighbors are saying:

Find out what's happening in Evanstonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

D.F. says:

Yes the mail delivery in my area of the neighborhood is problematic-   cross streets Crain/Darrow north and south -   It has been at least 6 months since we have had a consistent carrier      i see a different carrier ever week sometimes every day     mail has been coming on some days at 7pm      my neighbors have recieived my mail and brought it to me themselves-  

For the past 30 yrs of living here we have had carriers who we knew and who knew us;   we knew them so well many of us left gift card for them at Holiday time. Today i wouldn't know who to leave a card for-. I think part of the problem is just that-   they dont know the homes or the residents who live here so mistakes are happening frequently-    We need a consistent carrier assigned to our neighborhhood again!!   I would like to know how many other areas or mail beats have the same carrier over long periods of time-     is it this corner of Evanston that is only getting subs and interim carriers which is what we have.   How do we compare to other neighborhoods on this issue? [Additionally, i]n the thirty years we have lived in this neighborhood I have never experienced such variability with mail delivery as i have in the past three to five months and especially recently.  There is no consistency with mail carriers-  i see a different person every week sometimes each day which means they do not know our neighborhood or who lives here.  I have received mail some days at 7pm.    I know the postal service has had cutbacks in this new age of "austerity" but having a consistent carrier for our area does not seem like too much to ask and should not be a factor in budget cutting .  

WHo do we contact to make this request?  THis is not a city run service- so we need to get to the highest level of management as possible.   I am happy to make that contact if anyone on this list can offer direction as to where to start.  Actually once we figure that out we should ALL be making the call- and asking for a regular carrier like we had for the past 29 years!!!!!!!!!

D.H. says:

I think D.F. should count herself lucky that it's only in the last few months that mail service has changed in her neighborhood.   Having lived in the Nichols neighborhood for 35 years, I noticed a major shift about 15 years ago when our long-time carrier retired.  At the time I lived at Crain and Oak.   

We were still having Nichols Neighbors meetings and I remember bringing this up at a couple meetings.  I believe that [the] chairperson of Nichols Neighbors and I went to meet with Evanston's postmaster.   Over the course of about 5 years, I tried to address the issue in numerous ways -- including writing to our Congresswoman, Jan Schakowsky, who lives in the neighborhood.    

I do not remember any specific results of these contacts, mostly because it became clear that the larger economic system was (and is) working against "good" (i.e., service-oriented rather than $$$-oriented) postal service.    Apart from dealing with the dogs, I think this is a losing battle.   Here are some facts as I see them:

1.   Email and web technology (not to mention cell phones and cheaper phone technology) has eliminated a huge portion (70%, 80%, 85% ?) of the mail volume, compared to pre-internet and pre-cell phone.    I'm sure there are some good statistics somewhere, both about the volume and about when the change started impacting post office operations.

2.   I still pay my bills through the mail out of habit and because of the physicality of real experience.  On the other hand, it is certainly wasteful in terms of paper, energy (transportation), energy (human).  (I appreciate Paul Whittaker's comparison of renewable paper vs. non-renewable rare metals.  I'd like to see more analysis along these lines.)  What is the future of the postal service?    

3.   In Evanston, postal carrier routes have been consolidated and re-consolidated over and over again so that an individual carrier is now required to cover a much larger territory than before. This may be especially true in mixed-housing neighborhoods (such as Nichols) compared to primarily single family (such as Dickelle's neighborhood).   I'm not sure how the number of businesses on an individual route would impact the mail volume.   

One carrier who I talked to some years ago said that post office managers get bonuses for efficiency when they consolidate routes.    I have no way of knowing if this is true.    If it is, it's classic management vs. worker warfare and should be eliminated.

4.  "Skipping".   Postal service -- door to door, every day -- is something we take for granted and I for one would not like to lose that service.  But I am pretty sure that carriers on my route over recent years have figured out how to "skip" houses on a regular basis.   I now live near Sherman and Greenleaf.   E.g., I may not get any mail for 2-3 days, and then I get a bunch of mail at once.   It seems that this is a technique that allows carriers to manage their heavy loads (so that they're not delivering after dark).   

5.   Misdelivery.   One problem that has become fairly common in the last 15 years or so is misdeliveries.  For example I regularly get mail for the same number of SHERIDAN ROAD or ELMWOOD AVENUE, even though I'm no SHERMAN.    By "regularly" I mean every other month or so.  This compares with NO misdeliveries in the previous 15-20 years.

6.  Subsidized junk mail.    I don't think that taxpayers should subsidize junk mail advertisers.   Most of the mail I get these days i junk mail and all of it goes directly into the recycling bin.   Not only are taxpayers subsidizing junk mailers, but we're paying at least double for it in our recycling bill.   

7.   Friendly neighborhood mail carrier.  For the first 15-20 years that I lived in the Nichols neighborhood, I had one mailman:   "Gene" with blue eyes -- that's all I remember about him, in addition to the fact that he was a gentle, friendly soul.    Since Gene retired (not sure if it was early retirement or not), I have had numerous mail carriers, too many to keep track of.    Most recent carriers have been friendly and conscientious, but if they are overworked and jerked around by changing routes, etc., it's not likely that they'll feel part of the community.

Personally, I am beyond complaining because I'm pretty sure that these chronic mail service issues are not the carrier's fault.  It's the larger systems that are impacting all of us and piling on more than most of us can (or should) bear.   And I give thanks to people who are doing jobs that day-in and day-out are physically demanding and unpredictable (dogs, weather, construction, traffic, etc.).  

Thanks for the opportunity to think about these issues.  I look forward to reading your summary, but I'm also sharing my comments with the group in case other neighbors want to reminisce.   I would like to hear about issues from the carriers' perspective and from a policy (subsidy) standpoint.

S.F. says:

I would love to have no Sat delivery of mail if possible. We hardly get any mail anyways on Sat and it would save the post office money.

C. says:

I had no mail delivered last Saturday or Monday. Not even junk mail.  Very unusual.

A.R. says:

We've gone through different mail carriers since living here.  We used to have a regular person that came around by before or around noon as part of their walking route.  Now, it seems we are part of more of an irregular route with the carrier often pulling into the drive way to deliver our mail and that of the building next to us.  Mail comes later in the afternoon and at irregular times.  I miss the more regular delivery but imagine the change is part of cost cutting effort and nothing is ever so critical that the late delivery is an issue.

I am quite happy with our mail delivery--while perhaps underutilized it is very reliable.

We seldom get personal mail outside of the Christmas timeframe--which makes letters and mailed invites that much more special.  I wish I did more letters myself, but have never been a very consistent correspondent.

MJG says:

I am at Dempster and Dodge: Up until recently my mail delivery has been fine, but now I don't know what is going on.  Last week a package went missing, the tracking showed a notice was left, there was no notice and after many calls, long holds on the phone and 2 days later, the package was delivered at 7pm. Now another package is missing and I haven't had any mail in a week, finally today I got mail and I questioned the carrier, turns out he only on this route today, which is why I think I got mail today. I am going to get a PO box today, it will be a pain in the neck, but I can't risk losing my packages. I am all for the post office and want it to succeed so I think we should all make calls to keep them informed of the problems we are having.

M.A. says:

We’re doing fine here, Asbury at Dempster. 

S.R. & D.R. say:

Our mail has been quite erratic for some time.  Different delivery people and different delivery times.  For the most part, we are are not getting other people's mail and we are getting ours, which was a big problem in the past!

P.W. says:

Mail delivery has been somewhat irregular - often very late (~6pm) - in my building recently.

I don't receive as much mail as I used to, because I use email more (like most people).  If people want a healthy post office in the future, they could use it more, instead of doing everything online like the computer/internet industry wants us to.  I also think it naive and disingenuous to claim you're doing the environment a favor by using email instead of postal.  Paper is "renewable"; rare metals used in electronics manufacturing are not.

P.W. says: 

Maybe it's time to talk about the positive aspects of "snailmail" instead of talking about it - and non-electronic printed media in general - as obsolete or doomed.  Advantages of regular mail include

1) Security.  I just have trouble doing deeply personal communications (such as love letters) via email.  The postmaster isn't reading your handwritten letter but who knows what Big Brother reads when you're online.

2) Doing business with an elected government instead of a private corporation like Yahoo, Google, etc.

3) Permanence.  I'm much more likely to keep a handwritten card or letter; likewise with flyers, brochures, magazines & so on.

4) Personal touch.  I can, of course, choose from a variety of fonts and colors (and add emoticons, which usually seem to make a bad impression) but it's not the same as getting a handwritten letter.  Restore some emotion to your life by sending a handwritten letter.

I have no idea why the Government practically forces people to use privately owned electronic media instead of its own postal service but it fits in with a broader based pattern of privatization and government policy that favors private wealth creation over common welfare.  I've also read that the Post Office is heavily indentured by pension obligations (as are many local and state governments).

I think the communication glut the internet has fostered breeds cynicism; of course if you surrender and proclaim your cause a "losing battle" you have little chance of winning.  Resistance can be good for mental health even when not entirely successful.

I never went to Nichols Neighborhood meetings but it might be a good idea to resume them.  Not only are there advantages to snailmail and paper-based printed media, there are also advantages to face-to-face interaction over Facebooking & listservs.

B.N. responds to P.W.:

While I agree with MOST of your expressed sentiments, I do take exception to your "2)".  The Postal Reorganization Act of 1970 effectively removed ANY government-controlled-connection between our elected officials and the employees (and/or officials) of the USPS.  They ARE - in effect - just another "big business". 

Check back tomorrow for part two of Christine's column, where she contacts the post office to get some answers.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?