Local News
The US Postal Service has proposed temporary or permanent closures to branches in Allston, Watertown, and Dorchester.
City and state leaders spoke out against the US Postal Service’s plan to close several post office locations in the Boston area, vowing to take the issue to court if necessary.
The pushback follows a series of USPS proposals over the past two months to permanently or temporarily close branches in Allston, Watertown, and Dorchester.
US Rep. Ayanna Pressley, speaking at an Allston rally Monday, said the closures are part of a “coordinated campaign” by the Trump Administration to privatize the USPS — a position the president introduced in his first term.
“I find it hard to believe that this is just a coincidence,” Pressley said at the rally.
The rally, hosted outside at the Allston post office, brought together Pressley and Boston Mayor Michelle Wu along with local Allston, Watertown, and Dorchester leaders. The closures impact small business owners shipping orders, residents who need specialized medication, voters, and residents simply looking to mail a letter, leaders said at the rally.
Their message rang loud: “This is unacceptable.”
“A post office is not a luxury. It is an essential piece of our infrastructure,” said City Council President Liz Breadon, who represents Allston. “USPS, honor the commitment that you’ve made to our neighborhood and re-establish the Allston Post Office.”
Wu threatened to “legally and formally” contest the USPS decision if they do not change their mind.
The vow follows a lawsuit Wu and the City of Boston filed against the Trump administration on Sept. 28. The suit challenged the administration’s withdrawal of a $20 million grant meant for Roxbury street infrastructure improvements.
A series of shutdowns
The Allston post office, located at 47 Harvard Ave., “temporarily” shuttered its doors for structural repairs in December 2019, according to a USPS announcement. Residents have since defaulted to the Brighton branch along Washington Street, which now serves all 87,000 residents of the two neighborhoods.
The Allston branch made headway towards reopening in 2023 when Eden Properties submitted a proposal for a multi-use complex along Harvard Avenue, which would include 170 residential units and the post office. While USPS agreed to a lease at one point, Pressley said, the agency backed out in April 2026.
In September, nearly seven years after the initial closing, the USPS proposed permanently shuttering the Harvard Avenue location.
It’s a similar story due northwest from the rally, where a Watertown branch along Main Street closed in January 2024. The building which housed the post office was razed in a shutdown that Watertown News reported would last two years.
However, the USPS sent residents a “discontinuance feasibility study” around August, the Watertown government announced.
Mark Sideris, Watertown council president, said he would travel down to Washington, D.C. to talk to the postmaster general if it was needed to save the branch.
“In a time when public trust in local, state, and federal government is lower than it has ever been, the postal service’s continued silence to our request to meet and find solutions together speaks volumes,” Sideris said at the rally. “Why are they picking on us?”
So, when the USPS announced the temporary closure of a post office branch in Field’s Corner on Sept. 30 without a firm timeline to reopen, local leaders said it was a tale all too familiar.
“It’s straight out of that playbook where they’re dismantling it piece by piece,” said Councilman John FitzGerald, who represents Dorchester. “We can’t let that happen.”
A privatized post office?
The USPS did not respond to requests for comment on the allegations that the closures were part of a coordinated effort.
However, the idea that the Trump administration is aiming to privatize the USPS doesn’t come out of nowhere. A report released by the White House in 2018 proposed the US reform the USPS until it is sustainable or “prepare it for future conversion…into a privately-held corporation.”
The idea didn’t go away when Trump took office for his second term. The Washington Post reported Trump “expressed a desire” to privatize the USPS during meetings in 2024.
The discussion led the American Postal Workers Union to take a strong opposition to the privatization. And when US Postmaster General David Steiner took the helm in January 2025, he emphasized his opposition in a video message.
But now local Boston leaders say they believe the federal government is subtly moving back towards privatization.
“The services provided by USPS are a public good and should not be left to billionaires and for-profit private corporations to play games with,” Pressley said.
Public feedback
The state and city leaders called on Allston residents to submit public comments to USPS before the deadline on Oct. 11.
This public feedback has had success in the past. With public official intervention and community advocacy, a post office in Mission Hill slated to close ended up signing a new lease in 2024.
Sen. Ed Markey, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Rep. Katherine Clark, Rep. Stephen Lynch, and Pressley all wrote a letter to Steiner urging the USPS to “cease [its] campaign to close post offices in Massachusetts.”
“This issue goes beyond specific post office locations and appears to be a systemic and seemingly growing issue across Massachusetts,” the letter reads. “The result is fewer communities with adequate postal presence, worse postal service, and profoundly negative impacts on residents and businesses who rely on their local post office locations.
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