Senator Spencer Coggs
Sen. Spencer Coggs this week called on the U.S. Postal Service to reconsider its plans to close five central Milwaukee post offices, all in Sen. Coggs’ Senate District.
In a letter to U.S. Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe, Sen. Coggs called for a reappraisal of the decision based on the one-sided nature of the proposed closings and the impact the closings will have on the local economy in central city Milwaukee.
The post offices slated for closure are located at:
2650 North Dr. Martin Luther King Drive
6501 West Fond du Lac Avenue
3421 West Vliet Street
3931 North 35th Street
2656 North Teutonia Avenue
“This is a great disservice to the Black community already beset by poverty and record unemployment,” Sen. Coggs said. “Constituents in my district are outraged at what appears to be a selectively biased decision.” Postal officials have targeted 41 post offices in Wisconsin for closing. All of the closings in Milwaukee are located in the north side central city and in the area that Sen. Coggs represents.
“To wipe out five post offices in a highly concentrated residential and commercial area is detrimental to Milwaukee as a whole and short-sighted and counter-productive to what the Postal Service is trying to accomplish,” said Sen. Coggs.
Coggs pointed out that besides Milwaukee, there are no post office closings in Wisconsin ’s next 10 largest cities, let alone multiple closings in one city.
“This will have an effect that ripples through the north side central city of Milwaukee starting with job losses that lead to higher unemployment, the loss of consumer spending and resultant pressure on merchants, fewer purchases of housing and higher home foreclosures, and for each post office closed it will tear at the fabric and cohesiveness of that neighborhood, which takes its toll on the larger community,” Sen. Coggs said.