United States Postal Service Says :
Coral Springs is Pompano Beach
We Get No Respect!

Original Story

Revised: 08 Jan 2006 12:08:33 -0500 .

In March of this year, the United States Postal Service informed our city that we are not important enough to change the name of the city associated with our zip codes from Pompano Beach to Coral Springs. Zip Code designations are used to determine a number of things, including revenue sharing for some State and Federal programs. The change could generate potential benefits to residents with regards to insurability and  could result in lower homeowners, windstorm, flood and car insurance rates. One of our citizens in Coral Springs wrote to us and said:

" I moved 3 miles from an apartment in Coconut Creek, where my car was parked outside in a public ungated lot, to Coral Springs,(Hidden Hammocks), ZIP 33067, into a nice house where my car is inside a garage every night. My car insurance went up $168.00. My insurance company says that 33067 is Pompano Beach and due to higher auto theft there, my premium is higher. They will not listen to reason that I am not in Pompano....they just go by Zip code.  PLEASE GIVE US OUR OWN ZIP!!! - R.S."

This is only one example. There many others. Think about it.

According to several insurance companies Coral Springs is a Coastal Community with a beach because we are listed as Pompano Beach by the United States Postal Service. The USPS is conspiring to keep our insurance rates higher.

At the City Commission Meeting of July 9, Mayor, John Sommerer, said that the city will  take the United States Postal Service to court. The cost of all of this will obviously be from the taxpayers. Who benefits when various levels of government fight with each other. No one.  We can't can't let this happen now, can we? It is time for us to take some action!

Waste of Phone Time

I am sure you would agree that it is getting very tiresome to always have to correct people when we give them our zip code. That happens when we are ordering something at a store, or when we speak to some sales or service representative on the phone. The conversation always goes like this:

" Zip code please"

"33065" You respond.

"33065?" They ask .

"Yes"

"Pompano Beach?" They query.

" No. Coral Springs" We reply with a groan, rolling our eyes and taking a deep calculated breath.

"We have it listed as Pompano Beach. You sure its not Pompano Beach, because we have it listed that way?" They argue.

"No. I am sure it is Coral Springs. As a matter of fact, I am here right now at my home in Coral Springs.  Hold on. I will check just to be sure. Yes. My drivers license has my  address listed as  Coral Springs. Hold it...My letters addressed to me all say Coral Springs, 33065. Wait, ..Oh yes, the Property tax bill I receive, the Bellsouth bill, the FPL bill, the Cable Bill, the water Bill, even the bill from USPS for stamps that I ordered ...all say Coral Springs.  Yes, I am pretty sure that 33065 is Coral Springs. "

"Can you check again?" They say, questioning the truth in our statement.

Is it no wonder that this government agency is having problems keeping up with the rest of the world? The insanity at the USPS is only amplified by the fact that they already recognize Coral Springs as being a City . That can be seen by the chart below:

This came directly off of their website. It says Coral Springs, Fl. It associates 2 of our 3 zip codes with Coral Springs. Pompano Beach is not within the boundaries of these zip codes. Then why is Coral Springs not the default city in their databases? It's because to the United States Postal Service , everything is a big deal. And, that again is why they are losing ground to every other parcel service that is out there.

Let's not forget that the USPS is the very same agency that wants to charge 5 cents for every email that any of us send in the United States. Their excuse is that they are losing regular mail business to the electronic variety and the tax is  needed to pay the difference. This is what we have to work with. No wonder the city is getting nowhere fast.

Proposals for Citizen Action

It has come time to start our little own protest directed at the  USPS. It is a 'Gandhi' style non-violent protest. I am not talking about a hunger Strike, what I am talking about is Citizen action! Just like in the 70's.

Picketing : This was always a nice form of protest and it is currently still being used today. We all get together one Saturday when we have nothing to do, and we picket one of their substations, either on Atlantic Blvd 33071 (in Coral Springs) or 33065 on 94th Ave. We can hold placards up that we can all make. Some slogans that might appear are:

"USPS! Your in our City! Change 33065 to Coral Springs or move back to Washington" or "USPS: What if we changed you to SPSU?". How about a placard saying "United States Pompano Service" You get the picture? If you have a suggestion for a slogan email it to us USPS@coralsprings.com  . Also let us know if you want to participate.

Snail Mail : I sort of like this one. Lets get each citizen of Coral Springs to mark on an envelope  with their own address. Then, place Coralsprings.com  2423 University Drive, Pompano Beach, 33065 on the return address. Don't put a stamp on it and place as many of these in mailboxes in Pompano and Coral Springs. What will happen is that all of the letters will end up at our office for insufficient postage. If they get wise to this, buy 1 cent stamps and place them on the envelop. They will also end up at our offices. It will create mass confusion and the USPS will have to hire more employees to handle all of these mistakes. When the USPS sees the increase in staff, they might say...hey! Coral Springs is a real city and needs their own zip codes!

We can also glue our mailboxes shut for 1 week. That's sort of liek doing a sit in' without the police taking you away. If every citizen does this, the amount of mail that will pile up at the post office will be too much for them to handle. This should be done around the first of the month. That is when all the bills come in the mail. That gives you a double bonus!  They will have to listen to us now. 

How about placing your stamps on all of your letters upside down. That should do the trick! Better yet, let's address all of our letters using a hard to read yellow fluorescent highlighter.  Sort of like this. Hey! USPS! Give us back our city!

And finally, let's print our zip code on the envelop but use the barcodes based on New York zip codes. That will certainly drive the machines crazy.

Annexation of Pompano Beach.

If our Citizen protests do not work, then the city of Coral Springs might be forced to do something drastic. They might  try to annex Pompano Beach, Margate and Coconut Creek and rename it all Coral Springs by-the-Sea..  That way , Pompano Beach will not exist, and Coral Springs will be the new default city for all of the zip codes from the everglades to the sea.  Just think, we can now state that we have a city with 'Beach Front' properties. The race track will be renamed "Coral Springs Race Track" . The signs on the 95 will be changed to reflect the newer Coral Springs by the Sea. (As a side note, the Mayor told me that the original founding fathers/mothers of this city wanted to originally call it Pompano Springs. J.P.Taravella vetoed the idea as he didn't want to live in a place named after a fish.)

There we have it. Some serious possibilities into handling the USPS or at least getting them to listen to our city in its quest for respect. If you have any other suggestions we all would like to hear it. I do plan to picket the Post Office on Atlantic within the next few weeks. I will post the date, and hope that everyone will join me in "Hour of Protest: Give Us Our Own Zip!".

comments?  usps@coralsprings.com

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Revised: 08 Jan 2006 12:08:33 -0500 .