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Boston City Council held a public hearing on Tuesday, September 22 following a study to permanently close the Allston Post Office (47 Harvard Ave).

Panelists say that the sudden reversal of a commitment to build an Allston Post Office represents a broader trend of USPS closing post offices in Massachusetts and around the nation.

“The bottom line is there’s very specific processes and procedures they need to follow, and they either ignore them in their entirety or come up with some type of bastardized process to say that they have performed their due diligence and their requirements, but they absolutely haven’t,” said Scott Hoffman, a national business agent for the American Postal Workers Union.

Hoffman said that closure of Allston’s post office would leave it the only neighborhood in the city without a post office. 

“You could do comparisons throughout the country, and I’d say you’d be hard-pressed to find a location with 34,000 to 35,000 residents void of any type of postal presence in that ZIP code,” he said.

Phillip Granberry, a demographer for the City of Boston, testified that Allston’s population has been growing since 2010. Between 2020 and 2025, the population grew by 7.2 percent compared to 2.4 percent across the city. 

“By every metric, not only is it harmful that you are losing a post office, but there’s more of a need for a post office,” said Granberry. 

Anthony D’Isidoro, president of the Allston Civic Association, also said that the USPS should look beyond numbers and consider the wider context of Allston.

“The problem with the post office is they are using analytics to make these kinds of decisions instead of getting down to the human level and really understanding the tremendous growth and rebirth and renaissance of Allston,” he said. 

In a letter sent to Allston residents earlier this month, USPS cited the reason for initiating the feasibility study for discontinuing service was “termination of our lease by our lessor.”

The Allston Post Office closed in 2019 due to structural damage to the building, but negotiations to build a new post office have been years in the making, dating back to 2022. During the process, Eden Properties, the developer for the new post office, worked closely with USPS in order to accommodate the specific size and speculations required for a post office. 

Noah Maslan, the principal at Eden Properties for the development, testified that USPS legal team had reviewed and been satisfied with a final version of the lease in November 2025. In April, however, USPS backed out of the commitment to build a post office, telling Maslan that it was due to “financial difficulties.” 

As the summer 2027 completion date for the development nears, Maslan said that they may need to start looking for other uses. 

“Eden remains ready to work with USPS, the city, and the community if there’s still a viable path to restoring the branch. At the same time, we also need to plan responsibly for the future of the project and the needs of the neighborhood,” Maslan said. “Over the next several months, we have an important window to make sure the ground floor space can accommodate other uses and to begin identifying potential partners.”

Panelists also criticized the lack of transparency from USPS throughout the discontinuation process. Justin Deslauriers, coordinator for the Massachusetts Postal Worker Union, said that requests for questions about the discontinuation study have gone unanswered. 

“Not only does that violate our collective bargaining rights, but it hinders our ability to bear our burden of proof to demonstrate through the appropriate channels and our grievance procedures that management is violating federal law,” said Deslauriers. 

Hoffman says Allston might not be the only neighborhood in danger of losing its post office.

“Now if they have the guts to go after a neighborhood in the City of Boston that size, and say that a location of that size, you don’t have to service. The gates are open,” he said.

“To me, this isn’t just about Allston. It’s about the City of Boston because they’re clearly looking to pick off post offices left and right.” 

He maintains that outrage from the community could cause USPS to back away from its intention to close the post office. At the end of the meeting, Allston Brighton City Councilor Elizabeth ‘Liz’ Breadon announced that there will be a press conference and rally on October 5 at 4:00 P.M. in front of the post office site on Harvard Avenue.