“It’s a small issue, but one that doesn’t seem to have a solution.”

10th and Otis Pl, NW

“Dear PoPville,

In hopes of keeping our neighborhood clean in Columbia Heights, a lot of us do our best to report graffiti vandalism to 311 as quick as possible to discourage other vandals. Truthfully, the city does an outstanding job of getting it removed very fast when it is on public property as well as private property.

There is one area that seems to be a bit of a problem though. While they have become harder to find over the years, many of our neighborhoods (thankfully) still have some blue USPS mail boxes around. The one in our neighborhood, like a lot around the city, are frequently tagged, stickered, and vandalized.

I’ve called 311 to report it, but they never really seem to know what to do with the request because it is USPS property (thus federal government property). I also searched online to see if there was a way to report vandalism to USPS to have them repainted or cleaned when they have been vandalized, but alas, I couldn’t find anywhere to report it. I did some googling, and this seems to be a common problem in other cities such as San Francisco and NYC. Obviously tampering with the mail box or cleaning it up myself is a federal crime, so there’s no way any of us private citizens are going to try and remove the graffiti ourselves.

It’s a small issue, but one that doesn’t seem to have a solution.”

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