The United States Postal Service is mailing it in.
“We were unable to attempt delivery of your item on February, 5, 2026 at 8:06 pm in FOREST HILLS, NY 11375 due to hazardous or unsafe weather conditions,” the USPS told someone in upstate New York who had sent important official documents to a member of the Queens Chronicle family the prior day via Priority Mail Express. “Your item will go out for delivery on the next business day as conditions permit.”
It’s a far cry from “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds,” which has been the Postal Service’s unofficial creed since it was chiseled onto the James A. Farley Post Office Building in Manhattan more than 100 years ago.
The creed is not a pledge, however. And countless people across Queens are seeing the decline of the USPS firsthand. What happened? The mail used to be reliable, didn’t it? We’re not even talking about the rampant theft problem, just issues with regular delivery.
That Feb. 5 message did not come amid snowfall or any other inclement weather. It was a clear evening. The frozen snow from the big storm was still on the streets, but it was the next day, too, when the delivery finally was made. It was, as we all remember, so cold that there was no change to conditions on the street whatsoever.
Sending the documents via Priority Mail Express cost $33.25. And this was the sender’s second attempt. Back on Jan. 8, the original copies of the same documents had been sent via Certified Mail, with a signature required. The cost was $6.08. Those never arrived.
Calls were made to postal staff, and the best news the sender ever heard was that the envelope was in Brooklyn and had been scanned on Jan. 18. What crack did it slip through next? Who knows? But it’s lost. And the USPS employee who had been helpful at first suddenly wasn’t, and never made the next promised phone call.
Luckily, the state agency that produced the documents was willing to make copies quickly, so they could be resent. If only the USPS were as responsive.
We really hope it can be reformed. Sure, most mail gets where it’s going. But a lot does not, as attested to by stories we cover and letters to the editor we receive.
The latter, of course, most often get emailed.