Opinion

The plot to kill the U.S. Postal Service

Pastor Preston protests at the Berkeley post office in August. Pastor Preston protests at the Berkeley post office in August. Photo: Michael Short, Special To The Chronicle Photo: Michael Short, Special To The Chronicle Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close The plot to kill the U.S. Postal Service 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

No other nation in the world possesses the cultural heritage so nobly embodied in America's prewar post offices and the New Deal works of art they often contain. Until recently, however, most Americans were unaware that what they paid for and rightfully own is being sold off wholesale, let alone who is profiting from those sales.

That is changing. The Wall Street Journal and the Los Angeles Times have reported on how Berkeley has become the national center of resistance not only to the sale of its own Renaissance-style main post office but also to public properties elsewhere. The Berkeley-based National Post Office Collaborate recently won a preliminary injunction to halt the sale of the historic downtown post office in Stamford, Conn., partly on the grounds that the U.S. Postal Service should abide by the National Environmental Protection Act from which it has given itself a blanket exemption.

The Times also cited an e-book, "Going Postal," by independent investigative journalist Peter Byrne. It found that the real estate giant CBRE, which the Postal Service has exclusively contracted to manage its leased and owned properties, has often sold them at below-market rates to buyers with direct ties to CBRE itself. Private-equity investor Richard C. Blum, husband of Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., chairs CBRE and has a large stake in the company. Byrne found, in at least one instance, Feinstein personally intervened in a sale that could have benefited her husband's firm.

The fire sale of postal properties is a textbook case of a favored few squeezing profits from a manufactured crisis. In an April 10 letter to Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates, Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe claimed that e-mail's inroads into first-class mail delivery have forced him to radically downsize his workforce and sell the public's property. He neglected to add that the "reform" - read privatization - of the Postal Service has long been a stated goal of conservative think tanks. That reform could be accomplished by bankrupting the Postal Service.

Nearly all of the huge annual deficits recently racked up by the Postal Service are the result of the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act, passed by a voice vote of Congress at the end of 2006. The act forces the Postal Service to prepay retiree health care for 75 years into the future within just 10 years. It also hamstrings the Postal Service from providing services that would effectively compete with the private sector.

A June audit of the Postal Service by its inspector general found "poor oversight" of its contract with CBRE. The inspector general is now conducting a further investigation into the questionable disposal of historic post offices. Those properties, as well as a service guaranteed by the Constitution, belong to all Americans. They should not be corralled for the few.