Mail mystery on upper west side

For three days in a row during the week of Sept. 26, the residents of 35 W. 90th Street did not get their mail. Eve Birnbaum, a resident of the building, alerted the Spirit to the mysterious mail issue.

“We were expecting voter registration forms ... and some other important documents,” she said. “It was pretty surprising. I think on the third day there was some mail, but it was clearly not the whole backlog.”

Adriano Mirabal, a doorman at 35 W. 90th, said he had not experienced a prolonged absence of mail before.

“They told me to call the 1-800 number – and we’ve been calling but nobody picks up,” he said. Several residents came up to him throughout those days to ask for their mail, but he had to tell them he didn’t have it.

Because it is a larger building, 35 W. 90th gets its mail delivered in bulk by a postal service truck, not by individual mail carriers who only handle smaller buildings. A postal supervisor told the Spirit that he knew the mail had been taken out for delivery on time – but didn’t have an answer as to why it arrived three days late.

This was not the first time the building has had problems with mail delivery. According to another employee at 35 W. 90th who preferred to remain anonymous, there have been days when no packages have been delivered. He said sometimes the postal service workers neglect to collect the plastic bins in which the mail is delivered, causing a pile-up, and said he has seen some workers discard mail delivered to the building by accident instead of sending it back to be re-sorted.

The employee alleged that a postal worker “said, ‘No I don’t care, just throw it away.’ I said, ‘Are you serious? You can go to jail for that.’” He conceded that the service generally improves if he calls the post office to report a problem.

At the post office on W. 83rd Street between Columbus and Amsterdam Avenues, where mail for the residents of 35 W. 90th is sorted, supervisor Richard Rhule said he recalled hearing about the three mail-less days.

“I remember the mail was late,” he said. “I saw the mail and I said, ‘Why hasn’t this mail been out?’ and I know [a worker] took it out. So it got there late, but nothing was holding here. I assure you mail is being delivered.”

At least one other building is having an issue too. Residents at 201 W. 89th had also called Rhule to complain about late mail.

A conversation with doorman Jose Reyes revealed that 201 W. 89th has been receiving some mail, but far less than normal. “We usually get like half a bucket,” Reyes said. “A few tenants contacted the post office.”

Madeleine Thompson can be reached at newsreporter@strausnews.com