[net.consumers] "Un-Mail" and a second box for newspapers

andrew@hammer.UUCP (Andrew Klossner) (02/28/86)

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	"One solution to avoid wet newspapers and clutter in my yard
	was a second mail-box *NOT UNDER P.O. RESTRICTIONS* - now the
	only problem is how to get those folks to use them!!  The
	newspaperboy, of course, would have to spend a lot more time to
	put the paper into my box, rather than just throwing it in the
	yard .... and I sympathize with the *little man* at the end of
	the distribution channel.  I guess, maybe in the suburbs with
	"here a house, there another" density, I'll never convince
	them, short of a city-ordinance *with teeth and bite*;  but in
	high-density housing like condos or townhouses with central
	mail-boxes, maybe a second set of "non-mail"-boxes would work."

In my neck of the woods (Portland Oregon), the newspaper publisher
provides a mailbox-like container on a post for delivery of the paper.
It's made of plastic and has no door.  The point is to protect the
paper from the frequent rain showers.  Wrapping the paper in a plastic
bag doesn't help much, since it's as likely as not to land in a puddle.

The tubes are positioned at the curb, just like the mailboxes, and the
newspaper carriers don't seem to have any trouble shoving the paper in.

A few years ago, the city of Lake Oswego, Oregon, had an ordinance that
required that all "unmail" be hung from the doorknob.  Leaving unmail
on the ground was considered to be littering.  This may still be true;
I don't live there any more.

  -=- Andrew Klossner   (decvax!tektronix!tekecs!andrew)       [UUCP]
                        (tekecs!andrew.tektronix@csnet-relay)  [ARPA]

werner@ut-ngp.UUCP (Werner Uhrig) (03/02/86)

RE: In my neck of the woods (Portland Oregon), the newspaper publisher
provides a mailbox-like container on a post for delivery of the paper.

	I forgot to mention that I had tried that.  I called the paper and
	asked for those plastic tubes you often see in the country,
	because I wanted a DRY paper, free of ANTS & BUGS
	(yes, I read it in bed) - but they were "not available"
	Besides, in the present context of "trash in the yard", the
	newspaper company would probably not want anyone else to put
	things into *THEIR* box .....

		---Werner