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1. A century ago, an architect at McKim, Mead & White had a problem. He was working on New York’s General Post Office , and needed an inscription long enough to stretch the length of building, which fronted on Eighth Avenue.
2. He reached back to Herodotus, on the couriers of Persia. "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.” It became the postal creed, a commitment to always getting the job done.
3. The new postmaster general has struck a blow at that creed. “The service has stopped paying mail carriers and clerks the overtime necessary to ensure that deliveries can be completed each day,” the NYT recently reported. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/31/us/politics/trump-usps-mail-delays.html
4. The building itself still houses some 200 postal workers—a far cry from the 16,000 based there at its peak—but it’s being redeveloped, partially as an entrance to Penn Station, but also as a commercial site.
5. In April, Phil Rubio wrote for @TheAtlIdeas about what the postal service means to the men and women who carry the mail, and the communities they serve. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/04/why-postal-service-worth-saving/610672/
6. Today, word comes that the General Post Office has found a new tenant. All 730,000 square feet of office space in this grand temple to communication as a public good is being leased … to Facebook. https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2020/08/03/2071977/0/en/Facebook-Leases-730-000-Square-Feet-at-Vornado-s-Farley-Building.html
7. My grandfather’s name sits there on a bronze plaque, honoring veterans of WWII. The Post Office gave him a job, a ticket up into the middle class, and even—after he retired—a college degree. We don’t offer many kids those chances anymore.
