My name is Sharon Durkin, District Eight City Councillor, and I'm the chair of the Boston City Council Committee Committee on Pilot Agreements, Institutional and Intergovernmental Relations.

Today is September 22nd, 2026.

And the exact time is 10.06.

I left my phone in, so I will be ever present at this hearing.

So my phone is in my office.

This hearing is being recorded.

It is being live streamed at Boston.gov backslash city dash council dash TV and broadcast on Expendity Channel 8, RCN Channel 82, Files Channel 964.

Written comments may be sent to the committee email at CCC.gov and will be made part of the record and available to all counselors.

Public testimony will be taken at the end of this hearing.

Individuals will be called on in the order in which they've signed up, and they will have two minutes to testify.

If you are interested in testifying in person, please add your name to the sign-up sheet near the entrance of the chamber.

If you're looking to testify virtually, please email our central staff liaison Megan Kavanaugh at MEGHAN dot KAVA NA G H at Boston.gov for the link, and your name will be added to the list.

Today's hearing is on docket one three three eight, order for a hearing to discuss reestablishing a post office location in Alston.

This matter was sponsored by Counselor Liz Braden and referred to the committee on July 8th, 2026.

And uh I wanted to give a moment um uh so we're gonna take Mark Lanigan from Ed Markey's office first.

Um but at first I want to say good morning and thank you to everyone for being here.

I'm grateful to be chairing this important conversation at the request of my colleague, Council President Liz Braden.

The Allstone community has now gone nearly seven years without a post office.

In April, USPS reverse its commitment to move a new uh move it to a new building where it had already negotiated a lease and construction plans were in place.

What's happening in Alston isn't an isolated incident.

I know communities here in Boston and across the Commonwealth are facing similar challenges.

Two years ago, residents in Mission Hill received notice out of the blue that USPS was closing their post office.

Thanks to partnership with the property owner, our congressional delegation, Senator Markey, our office was able to get USPS to renegotiate its lease.

But that outcome cannot be taken for granted.

USPS is facing significant operational and financial challenges, but those challenges should not mean our communities are left without the good services they rely on.

Our residents deserve clear communication and good faith follow-through.

Council President Braden has been dedicated to advocating for residents of Alston and Brighton and bringing our congressional delegation stakeholders across the state together to fight for the Allston Post Office.

We're here to support that effort this morning, but also talk about protecting access to essential services in neighborhoods across Boston.

Thank you to Council President Braden for bringing this issue before us and to labor representatives, city officials, residents, and other stakeholders for joining us this morning.

I have a statement from the Senator on the termination proceedings in Alston.

And that reads The Austin neighborhood was promised a post office, and they deserve a post office.

Since the temporary closure in 2019, I've persistently called on the Postal Service to expeditiously reopen a location in Alston.

Most recently, on June 5th, I wrote in coordination with Boston City Council President Liz Breden and our federal, state, and local delegations to urge you to stand by your 2025 promise to restore a postal presence to this neighborhood.

These termination proceedings are a betrayal of that promise.

Unfortunately, this closure is part of a troubling pattern of postal closures across Massachusetts.

The United States Postal Service is meant to be the front face of the federal government in every community, but it is turning its back on neighborhoods across the Commonwealth.

As USPS undertakes these proceedings for the sake of our postal workers and this community, USPS should reverse their decision to terminate a postal presence in Alston, go back to the negotiating table with the property owner at 47 Harvard Ave, and reopen an Alston Post Office with all available speed.

Thanks so much.

Thank you so much, Mark.

Thank you to Senator Markey as well for all of his leadership.

We're going to go to the lead sponsor, Councillor Liz Braden, for her opening statement.

Good morning.

Thank you, Madam Chair, and good morning, everyone.

Thank you for being here.

As the district councillor representing Alston, I sponsored this hearing to discuss the uncertain status of the Alston Post Office branch and to call on the United States Postal Service to re-establish this branch.

This is not the first hearing on the Postal Service we've had in recent years on this council.

In 2024, I chaired a similar hearing sponsored by Councillor Durkin, as was the case as was the case then.

USPS had failed to respond to our invitation to testify in this hearing.

To provide some context, the Alston Post Office branch was previously housed in a building located at 47 Harvard Ave in Alston Village.

Due to structural issues with this building, the USPS suspended service at the U.S.

Post the Alston Post Office in December of 2019.

In 2021, the site was purchased by a Boston-based real estate firm, Eden Properties.

A mixed-use residential project for the site was approved by the city and is now under construction.

Eden Properties worked with the USPS to include a post office branch in the uh in the new site, agreeing to the terms of the lease with the USPS.

In June of 2025, USPS sent a letter to Mayor Wu and myself confirming its final decision to relocate and re-establish the Boston Alston Post Office branch.

This letter explicitly states that the USPS intends to re-establish retail operations for our customers in Alston, Massachusetts for the longer term.

And that and that this represented the final decision of the Post Office with respect to the matter, and there was no right to further administration or judicial review of this decision.

We all thought that was good news this time last year.

Now, after years of public engagement, planning and anticipation, USPS has reversed this decision and is moving to permanently close the Alston branch.

In early September of this year, 2026, Alston residents received a written notice from USPS that announced its proposal to permanently close the Alston Post Office.