| Popis: |
This chapter addresses the potential closing of a post office (PO) near the author's home. The author located the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) community meeting location nearest them — Buffalo, Iowa — and made plans to be there in person to hear the death knell. The proposed service reductions, part of the vaguely nefarious-sounding Phase 1 of USPS's POStPlan, are slated to impact over thirteen thousand post offices nationwide. In 2011, the Postal Service shuttered more than 460 mostly rural offices in a series of closings disproportionately impacting Middle American states. With several hundred post offices facing reduced hours or “discontinuance,” Iowa's 322 would-be victims placed second only to Pennsylvania's 445. Calculating a post office closure/hours reduction rate per capita reveals a moribund ground zero smack dab in the nation's breadbasket. |
