POLITICAL ARENA

More mailboxes going

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People might be moving into the Bronx, but mailboxes are moving out.

The Riverdale and Kingsbridge area is losing 20 mailboxes out of more than 200 being pulled from the borough by the U.S. Postal Service. And Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz isn’t happy about it.

“No effort was made by the USPS to alert my office or the offices of my colleagues that these mailboxes were going to be removed, or why,” Dinowitz said, in a release. “The policy of being totally unaccountable to the people that rely on the postal service cannot continue.”

Removal of the boxes begins Oct. 8, and comes a year after the post office pulled hundreds of other boxes in the Bronx to help prevent identity theft. The Postal Service wouldn’t share where the boxes were being removed, however Dinowitz said he was able to get a list from an “alternate source” that he did not name.

The hardest-hit area is just east of the Jerome Park Reservoir where six boxes will be removed on Bailey Avenue, Fort Independence Street, Sedgwick Avenue and Albany Crescent. 

Boxes slated for removal in North Riverdale include 5901 Palisade Ave., 6100 Riverdale Ave., 300 W. 261st St., and 6300 Liebig Ave.

“My district is full of senior citizens, and they heavily rely on their mail,” Dinowitz said. 

“Some of them cannot physically get to the post office, and need these mailboxes close to home.”

“The post office must not be allowed to engage in this major downsizing of service in the Bronx.”

 

Health care bill DOA

Another attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act seems to have died in the U.S. Senate, and one congressman couldn’t celebrate more.

“Thankfully, Congress will adjourn this week without considering Graham-Cassidy,” U.S. Rep. Eliot Engel said, in a release. “I continue to be heartened by the perseverance of the American people, who refused to stand idly by as Republicans sought to ram through a bill that would gut the ACA’s protections, cut Medicaid, and per the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, result in millions fewer people with comprehensive health insurance.”

The proposed action was an attempt to repeal what is known as Obamacare, and was designed to be voted on before Sept. 30 when Senate bills will require 60 votes instead of 50 (with a tiebreaker vote from the vice president). Republicans, however, said they didn’t have the 50 votes to allow the bill to pass.

Helping Puerto Rico

Local elected officials have partnered with Manhattan College to collection donations for victims of the recent hurricane that hit Puerto Rico.

Supplies can be taken to either Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz’s office at 3107 Kingsbridge Ave., or at U.S. Rep. Eliot Engel’s office at 3655 Johnson Ave. College officials will then make sure supplies get to Puerto Rico, which suffered a direct blow from Hurricane Maria last week.

Donations can include many household items including non-perishable foods, toothpaste, soap, new pillows and blankets, flashlights, diapers and more.

Jeffrey Dinowitz, Eliot Engel, Michael Hinman,

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