Results tagged “usps”

The USPS is changing postal rates again, and people are rushing to snap up Forever stamps before the new rates go into effect. Starting May 12, first class stamps will rise to 42 cents, continuing that annoying tradition of involving pennies in postal pricing. Trendy square greeting cards will now be priced at 62 cents, making it even harder to be hip. Everyone's favorite traveling companion, the postcard, remains relatively affordable at 27 cents.

--Yesterday afternoon, a man was shot to death on Geneva Avenue in Dorchester. According to WBZ, police are looking for a bronze or gold Lexus with three black men inside.

Bostonist is looking back on the year in weird, silly, or just plain creative crimes. Yesterday, you met some pugnacious bowlers, but you haven't seen anything until you meet a certain postal employee, overeager college students, and an exceptionally creative gravedigger.

--A Scroogey robber attacked a USPS driver in Roxbury last night. O'Ryan Johnson reports that the robber cuffed the driver to the steering wheel of his truck, and then the robber went shopping. Here's a description of the perp:

So we've now had a whole 24 hours to get used to the new $.41 postal rate. And we're more confused about how much it will take to drop something in the mail than we were when we tried using a CharlieTicket CharlieCard for the first time. We dropped in to mail the letter that we'd promised to send to Grandpa Bostonist back in March – marched up to the fare vending machines stamp vending machines armed with a pocket full of $6 in quarters and a couple singles intent on purchasing our first "Forever" stamps at the newly released rate. Nothing. Everything but the $.02 stamps were flashing "Sold Out" in that loveably outdated digital font in the machines. The line for the main counter snaked out the door, so we hopped into the line at the "Post Office Store" intent on buying a book of stamps. After a contractor bought a shipping box, a nice woman purchased a few stamps and an oversized padded envelope and joked for far too long with the postal worker considering the length of the line, and a guy purchased sixty $.02 stamps (with pennies!) We snagged a book of Liberty Bell forever stamps (congrats Phillyist on the iconic triumph). We plunked down the $8.20 knowing that we can mail up to six sheets of nicely folded paper in a #10 envelope anytime, anywhere.

If you’re an astute reader of the postings here you’ll know that Bostonist packed up our things and moved to the other side of the tracks back in September. After a good bit of time living in Egleston Square our landlord decided to sell our triple-decker apartment building as affordable condos. They were priced affordably by Boston standards, not, unfortunately, by Bostonist standards. While living there we told our mother we were living in Jamaica Plain, we told her to address letters there but make sure to use the zip code 02119. We knew, as the USPS knew, 02119 really meant Roxbury. Before we left our little neighborhood with Dominican flavor we were sitting out on our neighbor’s deck enjoying a nice summer BBQ one evening, just as dusk was turning to night. We heard some gun shots. A 14 year old and 17 year old had been non-fatally shot, one was the target the other was apparently recipient of stray retaliation fire. Incidents like this didn't prompt our departure, rather it was the 1-hour commute and the notice of impending sale.