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Okay, look. I've been following @USPS and been concerned about this shit much longer than y'all have. Also, I'm fucking awesome. So listen to me when I tell you DO 
NOT JUMP TO CONCLUSIONS. DAMMIT. Allow me to put your mind (slightly more) at ease. 1/ https://twitter.com/jboyle1223/status/1295095131750588417
NOT JUMP TO CONCLUSIONS. DAMMIT. Allow me to put your mind (slightly more) at ease. 1/ https://twitter.com/jboyle1223/status/1295095131750588417
Why am I awesome? Because in the time before America fucked up Covid, I spent excessive periods of time traveling and photographing thousands of post offices across the country. In fact, I photographed this very post office back in February. It was #10,132 for me.
It was one of TWENTY-SIX post offices I visited and photographed that day. So let's just relax, sit back, and have a look at the footage from the downtown Burbank post office and compare.
This grainy (sorry) inset was taken on a Wednesday in February. What do you see? Three snorkel boxes: two "regular" and one "jumbo." What do you see in that new photo? Four boxes. And they look shinier, don't they? That's because they're new.
If you look really closely at the unfortunately downsized image from this weekend, you can see a little part of the stamp / imprint on the "snorkel." It says WI. That's from the Steel Craft Corp. in Hartford, Wisconsin, which makes new boxes. In fact...
If you saw and passed around that photo of a huge pile of rusty old blue collection boxes from an undisclosed location in Wisconsin and thought it was part of the grand conspiracy to destroy the Postal Service, it was really just the storage lot for these people. Anyway...
Unfortunately the image was too grainy for my Photoshop to recover the rest of the stamp, but I'd guess this was made within the last year. Also, if you look at the rivets on the top side of the boxes you can see a bit of an "L."
This "L" is indicative of newer boxes with features designed to protect against "fishing" (literally, when a criminal throws something sticky on a string down a mailbox and pulls up mail from inside, in order to steal the checks inside, or cash, etc.).
So, we have what appears to be an investment in new blue collection boxes. Cool. But what about those red locks on them? Consider that (as the poster admits) that image was taken on a Sunday. Again, consider the issue of mail theft.
This is the post office in downtown Burbank, which I'd venture to say is much more hopping with activity during weekdays than Sundays. So, no one's around... big office, big metro area... there's the chance of some issues with mail theft, right?
Turns out, mail theft was a significant issue at multiple locations in the San Fernando Valley, where Burbank is located. Here's a story from the Los Angeles Daily News that discusses this exact issue. https://www.dailynews.com/2016/04/23/thieves-raiding-valley-mailboxes-prompt-postal-service-to-take-action/
Anyway, it's 2 a.m. here, so, look. Yes, we 100% need to be concerned about service changes at @USPS under Louis DeJoy. But keep in mind that blue collection box removals have been happening for DECADES. They removed TWENTY-FOUR THOUSAND in FY 2009 alone. https://www.prc.gov/docs/67/67396/ACD-2009%20(1).pdf
I love that everyone's concerned about @USPS now, though I wonder if you gave half a rat's ass when, several years ago, THEY CLOSED HALF THEIR MAIL PROCESSING FACILITIES AND ELIMINATED OVERNIGHT MAIL? Yeah, they already it all down. But we had smartphones, right; so who cared?
In 2011 @USPS threatened to close more than 3,000 mostly rural post offices. That plan floundered thanks to political pushback, so instead they took to cutting hours at well more than 10,000 post offices. They CONTINUE to cut hours haphazardly, even peak hours at busy offices.
Anyway. DO follow the news. DO be concerned about the future of @USPS. I definitely am. Just please don't go apeshit over every damn little piece of "evidence" that reinforces your impression that EVERY single little thing is a willful act of sabotage. Thank you and good night. /
