A decades-old post office that Midwood residents have relied on to pick up their mail, ship packages, handle passport applications, get money orders and more is set to close in the coming months, and reopen at a new location more than a mile away.
The plan to move the branch that’s been on Coney Island Ave. off of Ave. J since 1968, has enraged Midwood residents, who’ve implored the USPS to reconsider the relocation. A letter sent by two local community boards to Postmaster General Louis DeJoy on Dec. 5 called the move “beyond irrational.”
In postcards mailed to people who live in the 11230 zip code in recent weeks, the USPS had warned of the site’s imminent closure due to the “loss of leasehold,” and sought feedback on a new proposed location. From Coney Island Avenue near Avenue J, the USPS is eyeing a location that would be two train stops or a 30-minute walk south at the intersection of Coney Island Ave. and Kings Highway.
Residents have excoriated the proposal to relocate the post office more than a mile from its existing location. The proposed location is just a few blocks away from an existing post office on Avenue P and is located outside the 11230 postal code.
“This plan is in fact closer to an actual closure, than a relocation,” wrote four leaders of community board 14 and 15 in a joint letter shared with THE CITY. “When a post office serving over 100,000 community members closes and USPS directs the individuals who they are supposed to serve to a station outside of the zip code or to an already overburdened substation also in a different zip code, it cannot be dressed up as a ‘relocation’.”
Xavier Hernandez, a spokesperson for the USPS, said their lease expired in June of next year and they were looking for alternative locations, including the 954 Kings Highway location.
The Yeshiva of Flatbush, located on the same block as the post office, bought the decades-old building in 2022, and plans to expand its campus through a multimillion dollar renovation, city records show. The $14 million purchase was financed through tax exempt government bonds issued by the NYC Build, a program run by the city’s Economic Development Corporation, records show. Representatives from Yeshiva of Flatbush didn’t return multiple requests for comment.
Concerned residents have until Jan. 15 to weigh in on the proposed relocation, Hernandez said.
All public comments have to be mailed to P.O. Box in North Carolina and there’s no way to voice worries online, via email, or the phone, according to local city Councilmember Kalman Yeger, who said he too was irate about the longstanding post office’s closure.
“It’s a joke. They’re not looking for comment,” Yegar said.
“Maybe in North Carolina decisions are made based on how quickly one can drive a half a mile by car,” he said. “That’s just not the way that people go. This is a walking destination.”
Due to financial shortcomings, the USPS has looked to close hundreds of post offices nationwide, though the situation in Midwood is billed as a relocation rather than a closure. Several postal employees at the Coney Island Avenue site who declined to speak on the record said they’d been fielding concerned questions from customers, but hadn’t themselves been told anything concrete about when they would be out for good.
‘What’s Really Going On’
“We have no idea what’s going on,” said one postal worker, based at the location for more than 30 years, who declined to give their name.
Another employee reached over the phone said “as long as you drive past and you see the doors open you’re good.” The employee added that she’d worked at Midwood location for several years, and been warned the location was closing for just as long.
Asked about the Yeshiva of Flatbush’s purchase of the property back in 2022, Rabbi Dr. Jeffrey Rothman told THE CITY that the school had “no immediate plans to displace the post office.”
“We intend to have a good relationship with the post office and understand its importance to the community,” Rothman wrote THE CITY in an email sent in Feb. of 2022.
Rothman didn’t return several email and phone requests for comment over the last week.
Residents popping into the post office on a recent afternoon said they were disturbed by the site’s forthcoming closure.
“I’m not too happy about it. I don’t know what’s really going on,” said Haile Trotman, 53, who said he’d used the post office every month for around 20 years to get a money order to pay his rent.
Betty Schneck, who declined to give her age, said she’d been coming to the post office regularly throughout the 60 years she’s lived nearby. She used the post office to pay all her bills, as she was not comfortable paying online or leaving the envelopes in her own mailbox.
“As an older person I think I need that convenience, the kind of satisfaction of having it leave that day,” she said. “It really would be a pity. We need the post office.”
Anyone seeking to weigh in on the post office’s new location is asked to send written remarks to the following address:
Attention: Brooklyn Midwood Station Office Relocation
United States Postal Service
P.O. Box 27497
Greensboro, NC 27498-1103
Additional reporting by George Joseph.