Quote:
Originally Posted by The Yen Man
I dunno, I just find it hard to believe that there aren't ample space in older neighbourhoods that can accommodate post boxes. If anything, older communities would have more space since houses are more spaced apart. I think it's more a combination of people not wanting to lose the service, and NIMBYs getting upset about a post box near their house.
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I have door to door delivery and so do a few others in my family with some having already been switched over to the community boxes.
I don't care about losing door to door service. Im getting less and less mail as most other people. Most of my mail, even addressed mail, is what I would consider junk. Its not a big deal for me to go to a box once a week or so to see if Ive received anything. It would also mean that I wouldn't have to have someone pickup my mail when I am away.
Most others in my family felt the same way. It's true that many seniors still get a lot of snail mail. Change is also harder as you get older so if youve had door to door delivery for 30, 40, or 50 years that you've lived in your house and now they are eliminating then change may be difficult. I had an aunt and uncle in this situation. They got switched to a community mailbox after living in their house for decades. At first they were concerned, however after looking into it, they realized that you can make arrangements to have CanadaPost deliver mail to seniors' homes once per week. They are satisfied with this free service.
The big problem that most everyone Ive talked to, including my family and myself, is where these boxes are being placed. When a new neighbourhood is planned, streets are designed with community mail boxes in mind. This was never a consideration in older neighbourhoods. Often times their is no green space or public property near which a box can be put away from someones home. NIMBY? When CanadaPost is putting these boxed on small strips of city land adjacent to someones yard I can fully understand why they might say "Not In My Backyard." The worst part is that Canada Post seems to have done no consultation with communities and has taken an approach that sometimes seems less than sensical when placing these boxes. In addition, Canadapost has been confrontational and often non-responsive to any concerns that have been raised. My parents were lucky as they didn't get a box in their front yard, but the box on their quiet residential street was placed in someones front yard on a curve on their street. That house no overlooks the community mailbox, has to deal with increased foot and car traffic in front of the home, and garbage from junk from the boxes.
Google the issue and you will find dozens and dozens of news stories of complaints of homeowners getting boxes adjacent to their properties.
Heres one from today in Calgary.
http://globalnews.ca/news/2303067/mi...ilbox-program/
In the video on the 6pm news you could see how close the box is to her yard. Id be pretty upset if I had to deal with that. Its gonna have an impact on property value as well as any buyer that wants a private yard won't want to deal with that.