Curbside mailboxes dotting Meadowlawn

Residents estimate 200 to 300 have popped up in recent months, despite city objections.

By JON WILSON

© St. Petersburg Times, published July 12, 2000

ST. PETERSBURG -- New curbside mailboxes have popped up in a St. Petersburg neighborhood after city officials thought the controversial devices had stopped spreading in batches.

Residents estimate postal officials have installed 200 to 300 of the familiar bread loaf boxes in Meadowlawn, many in the neighborhood's southeast corner between mid-April and the end of June.

"I'm just astonished that it continues because I thought we were making some inroads (in talks with the Postal Service)," said Herb Polson, the city's intergovernmental relations director.

The issue has been debated for more than three years and has included meetings among Mayor David Fischer, the City Council and Postmaster Martha Worrell.

City officials and postal authorities have discussed guidelines regarding curbside box installation. Residents picketed the main post office. The Postal Service removed some boxes out of Ponce de Leon when residents in that neighborhood objected.

"And yet we still have the pockets of boxes developing," Polson said. "It's a situation that's causing some concern.

Fischer recently drove through Meadowlawn to see the boxes for himself, Polson said.

City Council member Bea Griswold, who represents the Meadowlawn area, said she is looking into legal ways to stop the Postal Service from installing curbside boxes unless a carrier's safety is at issue. The city has had an ordinance banning the boxes since 1968, but has not enforced it.

Now, said Griswold, "It's a wrinkle I'm considering." She has asked the city's legal department for advice on whether the boxes can go on city right of way without a permit.

Meanwhile, the city is mailing postcards to Meadowlawn residents reiterating the city's position.

The gist, said Polson, is that "We don't endorse conversion (to curbside service); we want to continue the practice of doorside delivery. It addresses the safety of mail from vandalism, and neighborhood esthetics."

Postal officials had no immediate comment.

Earlier this year, the Postal Service proposed to stop sending letters to neighborhoods asking residents if they would like to convert to curbside service. It also proposed that in cases of dog attacks on carriers, both the dog's owner and the owner's neighborhood association would be notified before curbside boxes were installed to protect the carrier.

The proposal's spirit appeared to discourage overt solicitation of curbside boxes.

But the post office and the city never have reached a formal agreement, Polson said.

It isn't clear how the numerous new boxes came to be installed in Meadowlawn.

Some residents in the neighborhood's southeast section -- roughly between Dr. M.L. King (Ninth) and 16th streets N, and 63rd and 70th avenues N -- say they believe they were solicited, and perhaps misled.

They say a letter carrier promoted curbside installation by saying they would become mandatory later, and that residents could get a free box installed now, but not later.

Others say they weren't approached by a carrier but came to believe through neighborhood chat that the boxes would be made mandatory.

"I was under that impression," said Frank Kohler, 6751 Orchard Drive.

But, said Dolores Singleton, 6619 10th St. N, boxes are appearing elsewhere in Meadowlawn, not just the southeast section.

"So we can't blame the mailman because way off his route, (curbside) mailboxes are appearing," said Singleton, who is a board member of the Meadowlawn Neighborhood Association.

The entire neighborhood's boundaries fall between 62nd and 77th avenues N between Dr. M.L. King (Ninth) Street and I-275.

The association has remained neutral on the curbside issue.

"We just had a board meeting on July 6 and decided again we are not taking a stand on the mailboxes, and we chose to spend only a couple of minutes discussing it and then moved on to other things," Singleton said.

© St. Petersburg Times. All rights reserved.