[RP TownTalk] Zip Codes and Property Values -- the Hyattsville Experience

[Chris Currie]

Zip code 20738 doesn't have any carrier routes.  I'm not sure why it
exists, since it apparently services only PO boxes.  In Hyattsville, the PO
Boxes have either 20781 or 20782, same as the carrier routes.  But the Post
Office explicitly has criteria for how it draws zip code boundaries that
include roughly equalizing the number of addresses served in each.  There
are practical and logistical reasons for this -- it's not arbitrary.

I don't want to sound negative about the idea of getting a unique zip code.
 I championed it in Hyattsville and still favor it.  But after learning
more about the ins and outs of getting one, I decided my efforts were
better spent on more achievable objectives.  The Post Office gets many,
many such requests.  Very, very few are ever approved.  (Raljon, by the
way, was not a municipal boundary change -- and it happened due to a
different political calculus.)

Can yours be approved?  Not unless you are able to generate a lot of
grassroots fervor for it that will also motivate your municipal elected
officials, who in turn will help motivate your Congressional
representatives.  That's why I bothered to write my previous message.  It's
not going to be enough for a few people to write letters to your members of
Congress.  I just wanted to let you know a little about what you would need
to do to make it happen.

I wrote a brief on this at the request of the Mayor of Hyattsville, and I
might be able to find it somewhere in old computer files. If anyone wants
to seriously take up this cause, let me know and I'll dig around and see if
I can find it.

Chris


On Sat, Oct 26, 2013 at 1:11 PM, Sarah Wayland <sarah.wayland at gmail.com>wrote:

> I've also learned that you can't predict how people will vote based on
> the dialog seen on a listserv.
>
> I am confused by this statement: "And it might be difficult or
> impossible to redraw boundaries to keep the requisite number of
> addresses in each zip code." Right now the zipcode 20738, as far as I
> can tell, only has a bunch of PO Boxes in it. Surely that's a pretty
> small number compared to the number of addresses here in Riverdale
> Park? (I'm sure I'm missing something here, and would love for someone
> who knows which addresses have the 20738 zipcode to educate me about
> that.)
>
> I personally will be contacting my representatives to let them know
> that I support a change that will help distinguish our town from the
> larger Riverdale area. As Jonathan pointed out, if you attract more
> businesses to town, the town gets more tax revenue from them, which
> means the town has more money to pay for sidewalk and street repairs.
>
> I encourage *all* of us (regardless of which side of this debate you
> fall on) to contact our elected officials at the Federal level and let
> them know how we feel:
>
> http://mdelect.net/
>
> -Sarah
>
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