My family and I are on vacation this week in Florida. A couple days ago, we stopped by the local post office to mail some items. The facility was very well-kept and was probably built in the last 10 years, at most. It made me think of our Marietta post office, downtown. Everyone I know always mentions the parking issue. The building has been around since I can remember as a child. I don’t know if anything has been proposed in recent years, but what about a new facility for Marietta?
The recently-opened government building on Whitlock Avenue (at Manning Road) is a great model for any new post office ideas to follow. Across the street, the unused space where Ace Hardware used to be could be converted into a nice, new post office facility. Imagine all the parking space and all the square footage inside. Does the back of the building offer sufficient space for deliveries and dropoffs? I’m not sure. There are probably other spaces available around the downtown area which could be used for a new post office — be sure to share your opinions, Marietta!
5 Comments
Why is there a parking issue at the Marietta post office? Marietta claims it wants to be a walkable city. Walk to the dang post office!
Now, let’s be realistic! If you have a ton of packages or are picking up packages, lots of mail for your boss’s office, or are old, physically handicapped, etc., you need to DRIVE to the post office.
I have lived in Marietta all my life and yes, we do need a new post office building or at least a west city annex, etc. It is very frustrating trying to park and at some times of the year, Christmas, it is gruesome!
Good idea, Blogsters!
Wlak to the Post office? I don?t know about the rest of the citizens in Marietta but my life is a little busy to just take a la ti da walk up to the post office. When I have to go there I?m usually in a rush and I usually have an armful of packages. The parking is awful at all times of the year but it is just infuriating around the holidays. Not every one in the city of Marietta lives in walking distance of the post office anyway.
This very subject was addressed not long ago in a letter to the editor of the MDJ by the Hon. Conley Ingram, Senior Judge, Cobb Superior Court. I don’t have the link to the letter, but I have pasted a copy below from when I sent it to my friend who works for a Georgia congressman on Capitol Hill. I think he has a good idea, whether it is a workable solution, who knows? Read below and decide for yourself:
DEAR EDITOR:
I rarely, if ever, write a letter to the newspaper as you all seem to have already a sufficient number of letter writers to educate, inform and entertain your readers. However, this letter is written in an effort to solicit public support for a couple of ideas that I believe need to be addressed in our community.
The first subject is our Marietta Post Office. It is woefully cramped and inadequate to serve our growing population. While its employees are friendly, courteous and efficient, the physical facility is far too small and old to serve our current postal needs. We need a new location and larger facilities with adequate parking for customers. So I believe it is well nigh past time for a new federal building. With Marietta’s emphasis on redevelopment, the time is ripe for new modern postal facilities.
This leads to the other need I perceive to serve our burgeoning growth and that is the creation of the Marietta Division of the Federal District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. Rome, Gainesville and Newnan all have their own divisions. Why not Marietta to serve our region north of Atlanta where so much growth in population has occurred and continues to happen? We react to population growth with legislative reapportionment and there is no good reason why that rationale should not be applied to federal judicial districts. With the construction of a new post office building, it would give us an opportunity to house a new division of the Federal District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.
I hope you and your readers will react positively to these ideas. Let’s at least have a public dialogue about them. If a sufficient number of people are willing to support them, perhaps our U.S. Senators and congressmen will get these needed improvements done for us.
G. Conley Ingram
Marietta
That judge works 2 blocks from the post office! How lazy can you possibly get if you can’t walk two blocks? I know this is the South, but come on!
The solution is not a post office with a huge parking lot (sitting always empty except December). The solution is a parking fee at the post office.