Parking spots at Connecticut post offices were a hot topic during a U.S. Senate hearing on Thursday.
That’s because U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) wants Postmaster General Louis DeJoy to sell off some of the postal services’ lesser-used parking lots to small businesses.
Blumenthal said small businesses in places like Ridgefield and Norwalk want to use the space, but can’t because it’s for USPS customers only.
He said the postal service should work faster to determine which properties need the parking space—not just to help drivers in the area but also to allow the cash-strapped service to profit from real estate.
“In Norwalk, they are in the process of redeveloping their downtowns now in real-time,” Blumenthal said.
“Senator, that’s everywhere,” DeJoy responded.
“Milford, they are redeveloping a downtown. They want to provide you with reasonable alternatives for the postal property, if it ever is going to be used. In Litchfield — I could go through a number of towns where, in real-time, right now, there are businesses and taxpayer interests and your customers are at stake,” Blumenthal continued.
DeJoy committed to visiting underutilized postal service sites in Connecticut, specifically in Ridgefield, with Blumenthal. According to The Ridgefield Press, the Ridgefield post office has been retail only—no mail handling—since 2021.
But, he made no promises about selling off the property.
“I do think we need to get into a better dialogue, more meaningful dialogue, with local constituents, quicker in terms of the decisions that we need to make and the reasons why we can’t relinquish or can relinquish the property,” DeJoy said. “I think we need to get better at that. It does not change the answer, in many cases, because we need many of these properties.”
DeJoy said the USPS is examining more than 30,000 sites across the country to determine which should remain open and which can be sold.
