Has the USPS considered doing the seismic retrofit of the building and then continue to use it for its intended purpose? Or are they determined to earn some money through a sale?

Filippo, the Postal Service is selling the building because they are desperately short of cash, not because the building needs a retrofit. They are doing this, or trying to, with many other post offices, too. Everybody uses email nowadays, and a lot of folks have not written a letter in years.

Same issue is going on with the old Berkeley USPS building as well.

>> Filippo, the Postal Service is selling the building because they are desperately short of cash, not because the building needs a retrofit.

This is a crisis manufactured to create a deficit in the future from all the buildings they're going to have to rent, thus making their financials looking bad in the future when they really do not look that bad currently. The people who are behind this out to be outed and this scheme exposed and explained to the public, who just turn off and eyes glaze over they hear anything on this subject.

Why do we need a dedicated post office downtown at all? Mountain View (with 25K more residents) has one main post office, then branches in Nob Hill, in a Storage business near Costco and I think one at Moffet. Put a small branch at City Hall or Whole Foods instead.

So where and how does one comment on the two proposed locations?
I urge everyone to vote so their preference will be heard.

If we want a Post Office in town, then let's have it put where people can and will use it. I certainly prefer Hamilton to Alma. Access is essentially impossible at Alma. IF it is located there, usage will be so low that that will be the excuse for actually closing it in a few years.

As to basement vs first floor, I prefer first floor. I would like to see where the entrance is or will be if it is in the basement, and then actually try using it.

Would like for CPA to be able to keep our downtown post office and reconfigure as required.

Can't see why the USPS needs a dedicated building anyway. They do need a downtown facility, so why not share with the library, or a drugstore, or a stationery store, or a café, or, or, or....

Sharing with the library makes sense to me, and a place to buy cards would make sense too.

Having visited the post office for near 40 years daily, I am still in awe of the architectural significance of this building.
if the city of palo alto can make space in the basement, why not make space on the first floor- left side for the P.O. and they can use the full basement for the city.
we would still have the dramatic entryway (left entrance), keep the historic nature of the post office, and the boxes as they are would fit in about 1/4 of the area- after reconfigured, and there would not be any dispute from anyone related to the post office. No lawsuits, etc. This would make all concerns stated at the hearing moot, as the post office would essentially remain the same.
this is all IF the city of palo alto buys the building, and they are certainly going to be outbid significantly by some tech co.
After the meeting, though, it seems that the USPS is just going thru the motions of hearing the public. I dont think they will listen without some strong arming by the public

I LOVE the PA Hamilton Post Office!! I grew up in this town, as did my parents and their parents. I can not imagine the building being anything BUT a Post Office, which was the original intention when it was first built.
Our town has been so rearranged over the last 10 years, building by building , it is becoming so unfamiliar...business' coming and going, buildings becoming sky scrapers....
The PO can sell the basement, but PLEASE keep the original first floor open, especially for us older people who have mobility problems and need the easy access.
Perhaps a dark night club could rent out the bottom of the building...or a restaurant that can be upscale with little candles at the tables for atmosphere......Alma Street is NOT a good option. More input ideas are open..your turn.............................

I have been renting a PO Box at the attractive Hamilton location for 20 years, even though the Cambridge St location is closer to my home and has shorter lines to buy stamps and mail packages. In fact, I rarely pick up mail on Hamilton without spending money at other downtown businesses. So if that location is closed, I am one resident who will be spending less time and money downtown. A location on busy Alma? That is about as appealing as driving to the East Bayshore office and I can't imagine where the large postal trucks would park or turn around. Obviously the location has not been that profitable for Anthropologie. I truly hope the aesthetically appealing and centrally located Hamilton office will be preserved through renting outsections of the property and that another traffic light does not have to be installed on Alma to allows residents to turn left from Addison.

I love the earlier mentioned idea of moving postal services to the downtown library!

Can't see why the USPS needs a dedicated building anyway. They do need a downtown facility, so why not share with the library, or a drugstore, or a stationery store, or a café, or, or, or....

Sharing with the library makes sense to me, and a place to buy cards would make sense too.
Web Link

By all means rent the basement but keep the first floor as the postoffice. Dismantling Palo Alto institutions one by one is a destructive idea. Please stop it. The reputation of the city government is bad enough. Don't need to add to it.

Another misbegotten offspring of the misguided congressional mandate to commercialize the post office system, which, naturally, requires the post office to divest itself of all historic expensive-to-maintain buildings.

"The building was the first in the U.S. to be specifically designed and built for postal service use." Keep the building as the Post Office. History means something. Proud of Berkeley. And are some of these "share with the downtown library" folks serious? Do they even frequent that library to think this would be feasible? Even the smallest post offices require a minimum of so much dedicated space. What is the post office? Santa's invisible toy shop?

The corner of Addison is so unsuitable, it's a ruse to make the other choice inevitable. Alma is a traffic speedway. Clearly it's a plan to close down the PO. Shame on the city for such obvious manipulation.

Put it in the library? then the library can reduce its meager hours and closed days even more. Staff wins, public loses.

I have had a PO Box here for 40 yrs, and I am at the PO every day.
The Post office says that they only need about 1/4 of the ground floor space. Move the PO boxes to a "W" shape- keeping the historic boxes, and put in a new counter, all on the Waverly side- then install a wall and others could use the balance of the street level floor and all they want in the basement.
This way the Post office doesnt move, and the City of Palo Alto, who is drooling over taking over the site, can use remainder of top floor and basement for the Building Department.
There is no reason the PO should be put in the basement- if the City wants the building so bad, they can have the basement