27Aug
I thought more about this post office issue, and I think that it is still easily resolvable. There are logistics that could be shifted so as to easily cut down Postal costs and keep things running smoothly. We must first realize that we have been trained our entire lives to expect that USPS is inherently a door to door service. In fact, this does not need to be the case.
For drop off of smaller personal items of mail/letters, we should establish neighborhood level postal boxes. So a postal box that covers say two blocks could be placed at the end of every other block. This would tremendously cut down on driving and man hours. This is to say, no more home delivery. You and your neighbors can walk down the street.
For pick up of items to be delivered we could simply establish deposit boxes near those same neighborhood level drop off boxes. Again both incoming and outgoing mail would be more central and the Post Office would realize a much better efficiency.
Some Branch offices do provide other governmental functions, like the passport, but we would simply have to relegate those to district level. This really is no different than the state service, be it unemployment or drivers licenses.
It just seems so simple to me. I do not see why the USPS is incapable of performing to scale. They are overbudget 7 Billion Dollars, perhaps it is time they start rethinking their route.
26Aug
Schools back in. Which mostly means school zones are active again for me.
But, Fot Worth Magazine published this handy guide to all of the private schools in Fort Worth. They also included area colleges and universities, and graduate programs.
Pretty darn good list for newcommers and locals alike. I just really wish that I could get this info in a spreadsheet so I could sort the data for things like enrollment and tuition.
Oh, I wonder how Melody Johnson is doing this year? I didn’t hear any ruckus about teachers getting fired. Hopefully it won’t come to that.
25Aug
I don’t really hate the post office. However, I do find that it typically provides a subset of the population which I would typically prefer not to deal with. The bleak reality that comes along with federal outposts and those who rely on them. Americans in their most unsanitized form being prodded along by civil servants without personality. No, thank you.
Lucky for me I couldn’t even begin to say when the last time I went to a post office was. In fact, that particular office has long since been torn down, and it did not disrupt my daily affairs one bit. So I was bit surprised the Star-Telegram said that “residents” would be inconvenienced by local post office closures. Heaven forbid we be inconvenienced.
And inconvenienced for what exactly? A Postal Office Box that can be acquired at any Pack-N-Mail that is most likely closer to your house? Or inconvenienced for shipping capabilities? Which are clearly handled better by Fed-Ex and UPS (they are still solvent).
I say cut post offices. Have strategically placed regional sorting and delivery facilities, but cut the smaller branch offices. We don’t need them, and clearly they are not justifying themselves. We could do better with stand alone drop off boxes and automated stamp machines. In the mean time I will go to paperless billing, promote the use of Evites, and cheer the loss of bulk spam in my mailbox.
24Aug
Here’s an interesting article talking about revitalizing vacant commercial and retail properties. Unfortunately thought, some do go unused.
Some time ago I wrote about the Big Box Blues, that is to say, what do we do when all of these very large chains go out of business? What do we do with all that extra space? It’s find if a local merchant can absorb some of these open properties, but I sure would like to see someone do something really creative with an old CompUSA, or Linens-n-Things. How about a niche library?
Rents really are becoming cheap in a lot of these areas, so you could feasibly start an ultra low cost gym or job training facility. Something that allows the property owner to monetize the property quickly; perhaps even on a month to month contract.
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