Don't we have enough junk on the sidewalk already?

These streetside mailboxes have been popping up all over the place in front of newly completed development projects. Why are we allowing developers to take over our sidewalks? Why not make them provide a mailbox on their own property?

Ozone Park mailboxes need some TLC

From The Forum:

At least two blue US Postal Service mailboxes have become sources of disdain in the communities of Ozone Park and Howard Beach, and the agency pledged to the Forum this week to make them right again.

The mailbox located on the corner of 97th Street and 133rd Avenue in Ozone Park is covered in bird feces, nearly from top to bottom, and a bird carcass was left this week right next to it. The condition of the mailbox and the overpowering area odor have precluded some residents from using it.

“It’s been like this for a long time,” said Joe Fontanes, who has lived a block away from the box for the past 19 years. “Sometimes I’ll walk down 96th [Street] to avoid it.”

Fontanes posited that the culprit is the tree branches above the mailbox.

“It’s not a question of repainting it,” he said. “They’ve got to move it away from this area where the birds nest.”

On Cross Bay Boulevard, between 157th and 158th avenues, sits another blue USPS mailbox covered in graffiti. On one side is a phrase written large in bright-green ink that can’t be repeated in a family newspaper.

A spokeswoman for the USPS said that both boxes will be taken care of as soon as possible.

Anything goes in Forest Hills

"Immigrant newspaper vendors at 71 Av and Queens Blvd in Forest Hills think nothing of chaining their carts to postal boxes. Not only is this illegal on both city and Federal levels, these carts were obviously stolen from supermarkets. So why aren't they fined?

Oh it's ok. Some smart ass lawyer will say they are protected under the freedom of speech amendment."

- Anonymous

Woodhaven's ongoing graffiti battle

From the Queens Courier:

On a recent rainy Saturday afternoon, Ed Wendell stopped the car every few blocks to inspect one of the graffiti-covered mailboxes in his neighborhood.

If untagged, he and fellow Woodhaven Residents Block Association (WRBA) member Alex Blenkinsopp felt it a small victory. If retagged, Wendell rolled down the window, despite the raindrops, and snapped a picture of the graffiti on the box.

Over the past two years, the WRBA has been trying to clean up graffiti in the neighborhood, which is mainly found on mailboxes or fireboxes. In the last few months, members have gone out to repaint them — sometimes to find them retagged a few days or weeks later.

Wendell, president of the WRBA, and members have mapped out the neighborhood into three zones to keep track of common graffiti areas.

They went out to clean up “Zone A” on Saturday, July 14, where Wendell said 44 percent of the mailboxes had been tagged. By day’s end the entire zone — bordered by Park Lane South and Atlantic Avenue — was cleaned, he said. By Tuesday, July 24, however, Wendell said 56 percent of the mailboxes in Zone A were tagged again.

Mailbox crap

I expect to see graffiti on mailboxes. But when the mailbox is right outside the post office, you'd think the manager would take care of it.