Dear Glendale friends:
At last night's Common Council meeting, we had a resolution before us to request that the US Postal Service conduct a review of mail delivery issues in Glendale's three ZIP Codes and consider a request to create a unitary ZIP code for just the city of Glendale. There were questions from at least one of the Alderpersons so we delayed a vote until our June 10 meeting to give time to get resident feedback. You can view the resolution here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Nr5u...
The feedback requested is for residents to contact their alderperson and tell them whether you support/oppose a ZIP Code change for the city. The rest of this email will give you information to make an informed decision on this issue. You can find the aldermanic map, as well as links to contact information for your alderperson here: http://www.glendale-wi.org/154/Mayor-Com...
I am going to give some background and explain the advantages of the request we will consider at our June 10 meeting. There are also some minor inconveniences to a ZIP Code change, but my opinion is that the overall improvements outweigh the minor inconveniences.
Glendale is divided into three separate ZIP codes—53209, 53212, and 53217—all of which are based in the City of Milwaukee. 60% of our addresses are in 53209, 30% in 53217 and 10% in 53212. Every ZIP code database defaults these three ZIP Codes to Milwaukee, even when the +4 digits are added. Even the Post Office on Lydell Ave in Glendale says "Milwaukee Wisconsin 53217" on the outside of the building.
All of the City of Glendale offices (city hall, water utility, police department, public works) are in the 53209 portion of the city, which means that Glendale mail being sent to city government offices all runs through the Teutonia Post Office in Milwaukee. Being associated with Milwaukee has caused delivery issues for absentee ballots, which has resulted in many ballots not being counted because Glendale did not receive them by 8 pm on Election Day. For at least the last six elections, Glendale has had many absentee ballots sent to the City of Milwaukee central ballot count location on Election Day.
More than a hundred of you in recent months have had your water bill payments returned with the yellow Post Office label that says Return to Sender - Address Unknown. The same thing has happened to more than a dozen residents with property tax payments.
The 53209 and 53212 Post Offices have had staffing issues that have made for irregular delivery of mail to our homes. I personally get mail 4-5 days per week and I live in 53209. When my regular carrier is working, I receive my mail. When she is off, sometimes a substitute covers her shift and sometimes there is no delivery.
We are also aware of quite a few other issues that the ZIP Code affects. In the same way that a drivers license serves more purposes than just authorization to operate a vehicle, the ZIP is for more than delivering the mail. With your drivers license, you can board an airplane, cash a check, and vote. The ZIP Code is used to determine car insurance rates. Glendale residents in 53217 pay on average 30% lower car insurance than Glendale residents in 53209. We also all remember the mess that the City of Milwaukee sales tax implementation caused earlier this year. The Department of Revenue rolled out the new sales tax by ZIP Code. We had many Glendale merchants charging the Milwaukee tax because their payment system was driven by ZIP Codes. We had residents receiving bills for internet service, utilities, and car leases with the wrong sales tax because of the same ZIP Code database problems.
We have detailed our years of USPS issues in a letter to US Postmaster Louis DeJoy (which you can read here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Kau6... ) A unitary Glendale ZIP Code will create greater accuracy and efficiency in USPS mail delivery. The new ZIP Code can operate out of the Post Office on Lydell Ave. That Post Office can serve 53217 and the new ZIP created for Glendale.
This process of ZIP review takes 6-18 months. If the USPS finds that mail delivery in Glendale will be significantly improved by creating a new ZIP Code it will be a couple of years before see a transition to a new ZIP. If that happens, residents will NOT need to contact all of the entities that they receive mail from. Banks, catalog and magazines, credit cards, streaming services, etc. all utilize ZIP Code databases. The changes will be made in ZIP code software and it will be seamless for us as residents and consumers.
The minor inconveniences I mentioned at the beginning relate to checks and drivers licenses. If we get a new ZIP Code, you will not have to order new checks right away. You will be able to draw a line through the ZIP on your check and write the new ZIP until you run out of checks. You can make the correction the next time you order checks. Additionally, your drivers license does not need to be changed immediately. So long as the name, address, city, state, and picture are accurate, you can wait until it expires to get your DL corrected. It would still be valid for caching checks, voting, and travel.
If, after reading this, you think that Glendale should pursue having the USPS evaluate our city to have its own ZIP Code, please take a moment to email your alderperson. I'm also able to answer questions if you have them. Thank you.
In community,
Bryan Kennedy, Ph.D.
Mayor
