[Durham INC] INC-list Digest, Vol 83, Issue 24

Mon Nov 21 12:21:05 EST 2011

Good information to share with new residents, particularly if you know someone who has recently moved to an older Durham neighborhood where door mail delivery is the norm.

Myers Sugg

>From Durham News 11/20/11

Curbside mailbox not required

BY JIM WISE, jwise at newsobserver.com
Whether your mailbox is at your front door or out by the street, the mail - to borrow the Pony Express's motto - must go through.

Even if the U.S. Postal Service suggests otherwise.

Some Durham residents , including City Councilman Mike Woodard, are out to set the record, and the Postal Service, straight.

"We're going to scream," Woodard said.

In part, because he's been through this twice before.

On several occasions in the past decade, and at least once in the past week, postal customers in Durham, and other cities, have received official-looking notices that requested (in some cases) or required (in other cases) they install curbside mailboxes, in place of boxes by their doors, if they wanted to keep getting their mail delivered.

Requests are one thing, but requiring is against the Postal Service's own regulations (Post Office Operations Manual, 631.6, bit.ly/vuGctU).

Request or require, though, some people get a notice and spend money to put up a mailbox they don't really need.

"People do it because they read the part about mail being held," Woodard said.

In October, a letter on USPS stationery requested the recipient to "place your mailbox at the curb" and said the customer's mail would be held at the post office until a curbside box was put up. Farther down, a handwritten "friendly reminder" said "you must install a curbside mailbox."

Carl Walton, spokesman at the USPS Greensboro office, said the letter should be disregarded.

"It wasn't authorized by the Postmaster," Walton wrote in reply to The Durham News's enquiry. "He has been apprised of the letter being sent and will handle the matter internally."

Woodard, InterNeighborhood Council President John Martin and former INC President Bill Anderson said they'd already apprised Durham Postmaster Mike King. They've asked to meet, and at the middle of last week, they were still waiting to hear back. Woodard has complained to U.S. Rep. David Price. King did not respond to The Durham News's request for a return telephone call, either, before deadline for this story.

Similar letters have gone out in Durham before, under two previous postmasters, Woodard and Anderson said. And it's not just Durham. Postal customers in Kansas and Nebraska have seen similar notices this fall.

"It's a ridiculous action on the part of the Post Office when they should know better," Woodard said.

But the recent Durham letter included a reason: "Curbside delivery is a more efficient and cost-effective method of delivery."

The Postal Service announced last week that it lost $5.1 billion in the previous fiscal year, at the same time its volume of mail is going down.

A rescue bill currently in Congress would require post offices to switch from door to curb delivery by 2015, "where feasible."

"I kind of doubt USPS's business model is broken because of door delivery versus curb delivery," said Durham resident Myers Sugg.
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Today's Topics:

   1.  Events: TODAY  Durham Art Walk Holiday Market,	Pauli Murray
      Day & more (Laura Drey)

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Message: 1
Date: Sun, 20 Nov 2011 12:14:31 -0500
From: Laura Drey <lkdrey2 at yahoo.com>
To: InterNeighborhood Council <inc-list at DurhamINC.org>
Subject: [Durham INC] Events: TODAY  Durham Art Walk Holiday Market,
	Pauli Murray Day & more
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If you would like to know about events that occur outside of Durham please write off the list serve and say add me in the subject line.

Events

November  20

 Durham Art Walk Holiday Market

With artistic talent by over 200 local artists at sites all over vibrant downtown Durham, world-class restaurants, innovative new businesses and fascinating historic sites. Visitors can purchase fine art and crafts in every medium, hear live musical performances, enjoy great food and see roving performance art. http://www.durhamartwalk.com/ 

The event is free and open to the public. Snow or shine.

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Sunday, November 20 1 - 5 p.m.

Pauli Murray Day

Various durham locations

To build a better Durham, the Pauli Murray Project engages a diversity of residents to lift up the vision and legacy of activist, scholar, feminist, poet, and Episcopal priest Pauli Murray in order to tackle enduring inequities and injustice in our community. http://paulimurrayproject.org/

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Monday, November 21,  7:00 p.m. 

CHARLES FRAZIER 

The Regulator is pleased to welcome back our long-time friend, Charles Frazier, the acclaimed author of Cold Mountain and Thirteen Moons. Frazier will read from his new novel, Nightwoods, a tale of love and suspense set in the mountains of North Carolina in the 1960's. Come early to get a good seat! 

Regulator Bookshop (919) 286-2700
720 9th St, ? Durham NC 27705 

> 

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Through NOVEMBER 26
HOMEGROWN/ UNDER 35

?This exciting show features 16 young artists who are living and working and pursuing careers full or part time in the arts.  All came from Durham Public Schools.?
http://cravenallengallery.com 

Craven Allen Gallery/House of Frames 286-4837

1106 ? Broad Street Cafe Durham, NC 27705

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Through  December 31, 2011

THE DECONSTRUCTIVE IMPULSE: WOMEN ARTISTS RECONFIGURE THE SIGNS OF POWER, 1973-1991

The Deconstructive Impulse, showing that the role of women artists has long been undervalued in accounts of that work. The exhibition is a survey of leading women artists that examines the crucial feminist contribution to the development of deconstructivism in the 1970s and 1980s. 

http://www.nasher.duke.edu/exhibitions_deconstruct.php

Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University 684-5135

2001 Campus Drive, Durham, NC 27705

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Through January 14
Opening Reception: Friday, November 18 from 6-9 pm

Craftland

All items for sale at Craftland are created by local crafters and artists and are made from re-purposed materials."

http://www.scrapexchange.org/craftland.html

 www.scrapexchange.org 

Scrap Exchange (new address)

923 Franklin Street, Durham, NC 27701

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Through January 15, 2012
9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Tuesday through Friday; 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday.

"Let Your Motto Be Resistance" Exhibit

The exhibition?s title was the rallying cry of abolitionist Henry Highland Garnet (1815-82), who challenged the "slaves of the United States of America" to rise up and emancipate themselves. "Let your motto be resistance!" he exclaimed. "Resistance! Resistance! No oppressed people have ever secured their liberty without resistance!" 

http://www.nccu.edu/artmuseum/upcomingExhibits.cfm

NCCU Art Museum 530-6100  

580 E. Lawson St., Durham, N.C. 

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Occupy Durham
If you would like to assist in the Occupy Durham movement, please visit the http://occupydurham.org/ or follow on facebook. Several PA members have attended OD events. They are looking for more support. Everyone is welcome to attend General Assembly meetings to share thoughts and ideas.

> More Neighborhood Events put out by the Scrap Exchange
> 
> Visit our In the Neighborhood http://thescrapexchange.blogspot.com/p/in-neighborhood.html page on our blog to see what is happening here in Durham and beyond over the next few weeks.  New entries provide information about opportunities from the Raleigh Arts Commission, classes at Tech Shop RDU, and programming from Stone Circles.  Read all about these and much more!
> 

Laura Drey
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