What to do with Canada Post?

[Boges]

12 minutes ago, ?Impact said:

Ok, then those new neighbourhoods with their wide streets and large medians to hold mailboxes can pay for the older neighbourhoods to be upgraded as such - fair is fair. Thinking you can retrofit a solution from vastly different conditions is the issue. Older neighbourhoods tend to have a significantly higher percentage of the population that walks, cycles, and/or uses public transit. I have lived in newer neighbourhoods, all we have is people stopping by the community mailbox in their car; I used to walk, but I was in the minority.

I'm sure the cost of putting in Community Boxes is covered by the reduced cost of having day-to-day service. 

Again, why do we need daily service? Can't we get by with 3 or 4 days? 95% of the mail I get is promotional material now. 

Edited January 24, 2018 by Boges

[Argus]

1 hour ago, ?Impact said:

Ok, then those new neighbourhoods with their wide streets and large medians to hold mailboxes can pay for the older neighbourhoods to be upgraded as such - fair is fair. Thinking you can retrofit a solution from vastly different conditions is the issue. Older neighbourhoods tend to have a significantly higher percentage of the population that walks, cycles, and/or uses public transit. I have lived in newer neighbourhoods, all we have is people stopping by the community mailbox in their car; I used to walk, but I was in the minority.

I moved a few years ago. My street here is no wider than my street was before, on a quiet street of 1950s bungalows. Furthermore, as you know, the city actually owns a big chunk of property alongside every road. It's what, ten yards, usually? They can do just about whatever they want to it, including planting trees you don't want. They can certainly put a mailbox on the corner.

Edited January 24, 2018 by Argus

[Omni]

Hang on now, I pay a lot of taxes and so I want my door to door. I also am friends with my mailman. Seriously, I agree with Boges, I don't need it every day and I really don't need the promo crap, but of course it helps pay the Canada Post bills.

[?Impact]

1 hour ago, Boges said:

Again, why do we need daily service? Can't we get by with 3 or 4 days?

Agreed, I have asked the question myself many times before.

5 minutes ago, Argus said:

Furthermore, as you know, the city actually owns a big chunk of property alongside every road. It's what, ten yards, usually? They can do just about whatever they want to it, including planting trees you don't want. They can certainly put a mailbox on the corner.

Not all neighbourhoods are the same, and high density neighbourhoods have very little room to put mailboxes, let alone the multitude of parking spaces adjacent and/or across the street from them.

[Argus]

4 minutes ago, ?Impact said:

Agreed, I have asked the question myself many times before.

Because it would require fewer mail carriers, presumably. I could survive mail delivery every second day. That would be preferable to going to the mailbox, especially since if you order things for delivery, as I do regularly, you need to go every day to see if it's there. They leave a key in your box to a larger box, but if you don't pick it up and they need it next day they take away your package and put someone else's in and you have to go to the post office to get it.

4 minutes ago, ?Impact said:

Not all neighbourhoods are the same, and high density neighbourhoods have very little room to put mailboxes, let alone the multitude of parking spaces adjacent and/or across the street from them.

What multitude of parking spaces? I'm in a new development and there are certainly no parking spaces near the mailbox. High density neighbourhoods suggests apartment buildings, which have their own mailboxes.

Edited January 24, 2018 by Argus

[?Impact]

11 minutes ago, Argus said:

High density neighbourhoods suggests apartment buildings, which have their own mailboxes.

Sorry, I should have said medium density. Something way above the suburban area I lived in with all the street parking (no overnight) available. Probably the best way to describe density would be number of families per mile of local roads, but then at the other extreme we have very rural populations with other issues that affect mail delivery. A good comparison is the neighbourhood where I had a community mailbox had one family every 50-100' (times two sides of road) and driveway parking, currently I spend a lot of time in a neighbourhood with 4-6 families every 40 feet or so (time two sides of road) which is about 10 times as dense and the roads are mostly one way and realtively narrow with a housing setback one quarter as far and overnight street parking.

Edited January 24, 2018 by ?Impact

[OftenWrong]

This situation is disgraceful and cruel. My elderly Mom has one of those mailboxes in her area where she has to walk there to see if she has mail. It is not a lot of fun to do so for her, and especially in the winter. There is no parking, and furthermore the area around the boxes is frequently not cleared of snow or ice. She mentioned to me just the other day how there was a lot of snow blocking access to the boxes, unless you could climb over it and she is rather frail. I know there must be many like her in the same situation. She found out it is supposed to be cleared by the city workers,  but often overlooked.

Edited January 25, 2018 by OftenWrong

[Goddess]

16 hours ago, OftenWrong said:

This situation is disgraceful and cruel. My elderly Mom has one of those mailboxes in her area where she has to walk there to see if she has mail. It is not a lot of fun to do so for her, and especially in the winter. There is no parking, and furthermore the area around the boxes is frequently not cleared of snow or ice. She mentioned to me just the other day how there was a lot of snow blocking access to the boxes, unless you could climb over it and she is rather frail. I know there must be many like her in the same situation. She found out it is supposed to be cleared by the city workers,  but often overlooked.

When our area switched to the community boxes, the first thing I noticed was how inaccessible they would be for the elderly and disabled, especially in winter.  The second thing I noticed right away was the amount of friggin' garbage that suddenly got thrown around.  All the stupid flyers, promo crap, etc - people just took it out of their box and threw it on the ground.  The third thing that happened way too often was Canada Post employees forgetting to close the entire friggin' door to ALL the boxes, so everyone's mail was open for the grabbing.

Not a fan of the community mailboxes.

[Boges]

18 hours ago, OftenWrong said:

This situation is disgraceful and cruel. My elderly Mom has one of those mailboxes in her area where she has to walk there to see if she has mail. It is not a lot of fun to do so for her, and especially in the winter. There is no parking, and furthermore the area around the boxes is frequently not cleared of snow or ice. She mentioned to me just the other day how there was a lot of snow blocking access to the boxes, unless you could climb over it and she is rather frail. I know there must be many like her in the same situation. She found out it is supposed to be cleared by the city workers,  but often overlooked.

How does she get groceries and/or do household chores. Who shovels her snow? 

As mentioned earlier in this thread, if you live in a single family home, you have to have ability to make it to a community mailbox. 

Edited January 25, 2018 by Boges

[OftenWrong]

7 hours ago, Boges said:

How does she get groceries and/or do household chores. Who shovels her snow? 

As mentioned earlier in this thread, if you live in a single family home, you have to have ability to make it to a community mailbox. 

She drives to the grocery store. She can walk, she's not an invalid. She shovels her steps, and a kind neighbour clears her driveway with a snow blower. She's scared of ice of course, so she salts her steps etc. So she can do that, but as I said, lots of ice at the community mail boxes and sometimes the snowplow plows it in as it goes by. Then no one bothers to clear that spot. Keep in mind, when you're old you don't want to risk falling and breaking them bones.

Sunny ways are all fine and well for young people, but I doubt Mr. Trudeau can relate to the plight of the elderly, especially those who are not as privileged as he is. Someone who has never wanted or gone without something they need cannot grasp that concept. Why can't she just ask her butler to pick up the mail?

[?Impact]

8 minutes ago, OftenWrong said:

Sunny ways are all fine and well for young people, but I doubt Mr. Trudeau can relate...

How soon they forget just who stopped home delivery.

[OftenWrong]

8 minutes ago, ?Impact said:

How soon they forget just who stopped home delivery.

I hated the idea from day one. The issue today however, is broken promises.

[OftenWrong]

Another angle to this comes to mind that might not have been pointed out- now that we have neighbourhoods with door to door, and some without, it could well affect the housing prices. For a house in a neighbourhood which has door to door, this is a plus. For the others.. oh well. Sunny ways

Edited January 26, 2018 by OftenWrong

[Boges]

58 minutes ago, OftenWrong said:

She drives to the grocery store. She can walk, she's not an invalid. She shovels her steps, and a kind neighbour clears her driveway with a snow blower. She's scared of ice of course, so she salts her steps etc. So she can do that, but as I said, lots of ice at the community mail boxes and sometimes the snowplow plows it in as it goes by. Then no one bothers to clear that spot. Keep in mind, when you're old you don't want to risk falling and breaking them bones.

Sunny ways are all fine and well for young people, but I doubt Mr. Trudeau can relate to the plight of the elderly, especially those who are not as privileged as he is. Someone who has never wanted or gone without something they need cannot grasp that concept. Why can't she just ask her butler to pick up the mail?

Perhaps she should ask the kind neighbour who helps her shovel to help get the mail on the days ice is an issue. 

Who mows the lawn? Who takes out the garbage? 

[OftenWrong]

3 minutes ago, Boges said:

Perhaps she should ask the kind neighbour who helps her shovel to help get the mail on the days ice is an issue. 

Who mows the lawn? Who takes out the garbage? 

What kind of point exactly are you trying to make?

[Boges]

9 hours ago, OftenWrong said:

What kind of point exactly are you trying to make?

That elderly people having trouble making it to a Community Box is not a great excuse for getting rid of them. 

The logic doesn't hold up. 

[OftenWrong]

11 minutes ago, Boges said:

That elderly people having trouble making it to a Community Box is not a great excuse for getting rid of them. 

The logic doesn't hold up. 

Well if it inconvenienced you or our family, you might sing a different tune. Elderly should not be ignored, just as barriers to the handicapped should also be considered.

Perhaps you can easily dismiss the needs of elderly or people with mobility/ access issues, yet they too have a voice and a vote, and deserve to have their needs reasonably accommodated. Plus the demographic in Canada has shifted towards the elderly. Many old people in my community.

What exactly is the point of having these boxes if they are not accessible? We are informed by Canada Post that we need to keep our walkway and stairs free of ice/ snow so that the postal worker can safely access the mail box. I'm sure you can understand that principle.

Edited January 26, 2018 by OftenWrong

[Boges]

25 minutes ago, OftenWrong said:

Well if it inconvenienced you or our family, you might sing a different tune. Elderly should not be ignored, just as barriers to the handicapped should also be considered.

Perhaps you can easily dismiss the needs of elderly or people with mobility/ access issues, yet they too have a voice and a vote, and deserve to have their needs reasonably accommodated. Plus the demographic in Canada has shifted towards the elderly. Many old people in my community.

What exactly is the point of having these boxes if they are not accessible? We are informed by Canada Post that we need to keep our walkway and stairs free of ice/ snow so that the postal worker can safely access the mail box. I'm sure you can understand that principle.

If they live alone in single family homes then how they get their mail should be the least of their worries. People that live in homes like this, have to be able bodied. And if not they need assistance to do a variety of chores. . . like getting the mail. 

Move to a condo where the mail is in the lobby. 

But you're right, Canada Post workers should make these Community Boxes easy to get to. The ones I see are usually right off the sideway/curb. 

But considering the mail we get is becoming less and less important, getting it delivered right to your door 5 days a week is not vital. 

Edited January 26, 2018 by Boges

[?Impact]

3 hours ago, Boges said:

Move to a condo where the mail is in the lobby.

Condo living is not for everyone, and perhaps not affordable depending on the value of their home. Their support network and friends are more than likely close to their home, what if suitable condos are not in that neighbourhood?

[Boges]

8 minutes ago, ?Impact said:

Condo living is not for everyone, and perhaps not affordable depending on the value of their home. Their support network and friends are more than likely close to their home, what if suitable condos are not in that neighbourhood?

Then hire someone to help with daily tasks or that support network should be there already, to pick up the mail. 

It's just not logical to keep home delivery for a cross section of seniors that live in single family homes and have no support system. That number can't be big enough to justify propping up Canada Post. 

Edited January 26, 2018 by Boges

[OftenWrong]

My point was already made clearly, they do not maintain access to these boxes to that same level of standard that we are expected to maintain for their own workers. Doesn't matter if its an old person or younger one, that is just the example I gave. Anyone can slip and injure themselves.

Your assertion that she should have to move because of the mailbox is unacceptable. She had mail delivery when she bought the home. This also relates to another point I made earlier, home owners could lose property value because of the disparity, some homes still have home delivery, others don't.

Edited January 26, 2018 by OftenWrong

[Boges]

7 minutes ago, OftenWrong said:

My point was already made clearly, they do not maintain access to these boxes to that same level of standard that we are expected to maintain for their own workers. Doesn't matter if its an old person or younger one, that is just the example I gave. Anyone can slip and injure themselves.

I won't argue that point with you. Fix that element, don't reverse policy on Community Boxes.  Community Boxes should be adjacent to already existing mailboxes. 

Edited January 26, 2018 by Boges

[OftenWrong]

2 minutes ago, Boges said:

I won't argue that point with you. Fix that element, don't reverse policy on Community Boxes.  Community Boxes should be adjacent to already existing mailboxes. 

Then would you argue my second point, added just after about property values being affected

[Boges]

I wouldn't think Property Value would be affected. Most, if not all, new homes already have Community Boxes. 

I venture to say richer neighbourhoods are the ones that still get door-to-door. 

[?Impact]

14 minutes ago, Boges said:

I wouldn't think Property Value would be affected. Most, if not all, new homes already have Community Boxes. 

I venture to say richer neighbourhoods are the ones that still get door-to-door. 

A lot of older neighbourhoods are far from rich