Welcome to the new city of Runyonland
Let me explain. Officials with the new city of Lakewood are well aware that some of us are having trouble with the mail. If people send us letters addressed to Lakewood but without the right zip code, the letters may go to the Lakewood north of Seattle. That's because the post office has named our post office "Lakewood Center," and still officially considers us part of Tacoma.
The city of Lakewood asked the U.S. Postal Service to rename the post office for the community of 250 north of Seattle. You can argue that our city of 65,000 was being presumptuous. Yet the post office's response was even more heavy-handed. U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks passed on the city's concern to the Postal Service. He got a letter back from Marvin Runyon, the postmaster general. His stationary says that he is the "CEO."
Here is what Runyon said about Lakewood's problem:
"The Postal Service anticipated addressing problems when the Lakewood area in Pierce County was considering incorporating. Seattle district postal officials asked leaders there to consider using a name other than Lakewood because of the long-established Lakewood post office in Snohomish County. Regrettably, the suggestion was not accepted, and the city of Lakewood, Pierce County, was incorporated on Feb. 28."
There are two problems here. His letter is arrogant, and it is inaccurate.
For one thing, no one can find evidence that the post office ever asked incorporation proponents to change the name of the city before or even immediately after cityhood. I spoke back then to postal officials on the subject. They did warn us there might be some confusion until the new city became established. Until after cityhood, no one from the post office suggested we hold an election to change our name.
But then there is the bigger problem of Runyon's attitude that it was regrettable that we chose to name our own city. I thought the name of his organization was "Postal Service." The people of Lakewood pay the taxes and postal fees that give Runyon his job. And we are the ones who wait in line, such as I did on one recent morning, while they staff a post office that serves 65,000 citizens with one person.
We are his customers. Runyon has not business telling us what we ought to name our own city, unless he lives here.And quite the opposite is true. Runyon has no clue where we are.
Runyon goes on to write, "Mayor Harrison may also want to consider the option of implementing another community name, such as North Lakewood, to alleviate the service problems that concern him."
Now, forget the arrogance of his suggestion for a minute. I am unclear why the postmaster general thinks we should rename ourselves North Lakewood when we are, in fact, south of the other Lakewood.
One possibility is that Runyon speaks of things he knows nothing about. This is a common problem among bureaucrats who lost sight of the taxpayers that they are supposed to serve. We could solve this problem by choosing a name that Runyon would not doubt approve of: Runyonland.
Keeping his name on our minds would remind us that elected officials and bureaucrats often become arrogant and uncaring. This name would constantly remind us that we do not want our own city staff and elected officials to become so unsympathetic. This may be an extreme solution,, but I bet at least we would get better service from a national leader who is as much a "CEO" as his organization is a "Service."
