The British Post Office’s plans to close down 2,500 local post office branches has led to huge outcry in the UK, understandably enough, given the important role they play in defining what a local community is. But an interesting piece in the Guardian got me thinking about where we live and the differences between urban, suburban and truly rural life. I’ve only ever experienced urban life, in that the area of south London I lived in was close to all public transport and you could walk to school and local shops (although many of those have closed since I lived there and been turned into flats, some of them very ugly). It might be seen as the suburbs, but you didn’t need a car to get everywhere, which seems to me to be a sort of defining suburban quality, although perhaps that’s American suburbs, which are much more spread out. Still, if it was suburbia, rather that than exurbs, that’s for sure.
But in Manhattan, the archetype of an urban metropolis, the juxtaposition between skyscrapers and ‘Mom n Pop’ stores is striking. You still have local shops serving local people, to paraphrase the League of Gentlemen. We are soon to move apartment, to an area that is very similar to many here, in that there is a hardware store, a dry cleaner, a deli, a video rental place and bakers, all within a one block radius of our apartment building, i.e. all within 50 yards of our door. And none are chains or ‘box stores.’
Sure, they also serve people who pass through, given it’s only about a 10 minute walk from 42nd Street. But it makes you think about the reasons people give for moving to suburbia from big cities and I don’t think local shopping really is one of them. I’d sooner make the leap from big city to rural than to suburbia and have to drive everywhere to get the simplest thing done, but that’s just me.
Here, an independent watchdog body tries to get to grips with the Post Office’s definitions of what it is to be urban or rural in regards to a post office near Chichester in West Sussex (rural post office stay open, urban are more likely to be closed, to oversimplify it):
“This is where it does all get rather bizarre,” says Postwatch’s Helen Maunder. “I mean, I realise we’re not surrounded here by sheep and cows in fields, but by four of the Post Office’s own five criteria, this is a rural branch.” The Post Office disagrees: it argues that the area ought to be counted as part of the urban sprawl of Chichester, and since that urban sprawl contains more than 10,000 people, it follows that the office must be urban.
The role of the Post Office is definitely changing – our experiences sending Christmas presents recently to and from the US and UK means we probably won’t bother again. But just in case, where we’re moving to, the nearest US Post Office is 4 blocks south of us, i.e. about a 5 minute walk, surrounded by small shops and restaurants.