Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Mail [ was Urban cohousing: Common house on roof?]

[Muriel Kranowski (murielk]

I want to second (or maybe third by now) people's remarks about the 
undesirability of having mail delivered to anyplace except individuals' own 
mailboxes.  We had a situation for about a year where the incoming mail was 
dumped into a big box in the CH lower level, and three members took turns, 
each two days a week, carrying it all upstairs and doing the actual sorting 
and individual delivery.

It was a pain in the neck for those three volunteers, and a definite 
violation of members' privacy, and was probably illegal to boot. We were 
having problems with our mail carrier (a contract driver, not a USPS 
employee) about where he was supposed to bring the mail, so we were stuck 
with this system, the alternative being to pick up our mail at the Post 
Office. We were thrilled when the issue was finally resolved and we started 
getting normal delivery again.

I don't believe that any benefits in sociability will be worth the 
negatives of such an arrangement.

  Muriel
  Shadowlake Village Cohousing
  Blacksburg, VA