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Williamsburg Residents Riled Up Over New Zip Code
By
Jen Carlson
Published Jun 2, 2011
Modified Jun 3, 2011
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By
Jen Carlson
Published Jun 2, 2011
Modified Jun 3, 2011
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Williamsburg is pretty attached to its 11211 zip code—it's practically part of the branding of the neighborhood. So that may explain why residents are simply horrified by the piece of mail they received from the USPS yesterday (read it in full below) declaring the zip code dead, at least in certain areas. Some residents are still in the denial stage of grief, and have emailed us asking to check the legitimacy of the letter—but be certain, you once-disaffected group, the letter is real.
As one reader explained: "I got a letter in my box today from the post office announcing that the Williamsburg Bedford Ave-area zip code 11211 will soon become the sadly less palindromic 11249. Does this mean they'll actually be building a new post office in the neighborhood? That might be worth the lost letters."
A rep for the USPS told us this morning that no, there will be no new post office, and the change was made because "the existing zip code table could not handle all the new deliveries so we had to add an additional zip to accommodate all the new construction, population." More details about the change to come, in the meantime, what are all of those people who got 11211 tattoos going to do (you know they exist), and what's this blog going to do?! Clearly the USPS did not think this through.
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Jen Carlson
Jen Carlson is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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