Community mailboxes aren’t really so bad
Re: Community mailboxes loom as an election issue, July 2.
Approximately 10 years ago when we lived in Almonte, community mailboxes were installed, with ours about a block-and-a-half away from our house.
And, as with Ottawa, there was a great hew and cry in the local paper for weeks damning these inconvenient eyesores.
Well, after five years of living with a community mailbox, here is what I found: One, it seemed about 80 per cent of our neighbours drove to work, and stopping by the mailbox on the way home was a non-issue. About 10 per cent were stay-at-home moms and dads who included picking up the mail as an errand while out with their children. And 10 per cent were retired people who had reason to get out for a stroll to pick up their mail. Of course, for all of these people, getting the mail every day is not mandatory.
But, you say, that totals 100 per cent. What about all the seniors that cannot walk to the mailbox? Well, they tend to live in apartments where mail is delivered to them. Anyone who can live alone in a house and care for it, can also walk to the mailbox a couple of times a week.
And there was a great bonus: we got to meet our neighbours, which particularly benefited the young couples with children.
As Shakespeare said, we have much ado about nothing!
Peter Fedirchuk, Kanata
Related
Why not a shared collection box?
At this time I vote for a shared collection box.
Several times already this summer my roadside box on Dunrobin Road has received letters addressed to occupants of other residences. Last Friday there were two, folded into the mass of ads and connected by a rubber band, each addressed to different residents further along this road. None for me.
Meanwhile, my updated health card is nearly three weeks overdue — I can only wonder where it ended up.
Martha Webber, Kanata
Postal system in steady decline
Re: Community mailboxes aren’t really so bad, July 4.
Letter-writer Peter Fedirchuk considers the controversy over community mailboxes to be much ado about nothing. He misses the point. The replacement of urban doorstep mail delivery by community mailboxes is an affirmation of the abject failure of Canada’s postal policy, as Canada Post itself admits: to preserve mail service, traditional doorstep delivery must be eliminated.
Since 1981, when the post office was turned from a government ministry into a Crown corporation, postal service has steadily eroded (remember Saturday collections from mailboxes, extra deliveries at Christmas?) while prices have skyrocketed (by 127 per cent for a single domestic stamp, 175 per cent for an international stamp, after inflation).
Despite a worldwide drop in lettermail volume, no other nation has even contemplated elimination of doorstep mail delivery.
Much ado about nothing? That the government is allowing the postal system to decline to a mere shadow of its former self is a national disgrace.
Thomas Frisch, Ottawa
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