Pneumatic Mail

Untappped New York has a fascinating story about how mail was once sent around New York (mostly Manhattan and Brooklyn) via pneumatic tubes.

In 1897, New York City’s postal service began building a pneumatic system to transport mail between its 23 post offices. Forget email: This 27-mile-long pneumatic tube network was NYC’s first information superhighway.

The cast-iron tubes were buried four to six feet underground and formed a loop that stretched north to Harlem and south to City Hall, with an extension to Brooklyn. As Kate Ascher reported in The Works: Anatomy of a City, air compressors and blowers pressurized the tubes so that two-foot-long canisters, each filled with 500 letters, would shoot through the tubes at speeds up to 30 miles per hour, like mini rockets. (The people who operated the tubes were dubbed “Rocketeers.”)

At its peak, about one-third of all first-class mail that the city’s main post office processed—about 95,000 letters every day—traveled through the pneumatic system. If this network of air blowers and canisters moving as fast as cars sounds expensive, it sure was. The federal government had to make annual rental payments of 17,000 per mile.

It would have been amazing to think that mail ‘flowed’ beneath the clogged streets from Harold Square to East Harlem.

The system ended in 1953.

To listen to a podcast about the pneumatic mail system, see:

https://untappedcities.com/2021/01/21/pneumatic-tube-mail-nyc/

Construction Jobs

Dear Community,
Urban Strategies of New York Inc. and Monadnock Construction are partnering to bring Manhattan locals and NYCHA residents a great opportunity for employment within the construction industry. We have positions available for:Laborers, Plumbers Assistants, Painters, Roofers, Plasterers, And many more! Our priority is NYCHA residents that are on the lease. Our second priority are local residents in Manhattan. Residence in zip codes listed below are strongly encouraged to apply:10026, 10027, 10029, 10030, 10035, 10037, 10039, 10128.
These jobs range in pay from $20-$25 an hour for nonprevailing jobs. There are opportunities for prevailing wage jobs, local union jobs,  journeyman positions and apprenticeship opportunities for those who graduated from a pre-apprenticeship program.For more information, please call (646)564-3777  ext. 1003 or email potential candidates resume to info@urbanstrategiesofnewyork.com
If training is needed, please call (646)564-3777 ext 1002

Tax Protest

Our neighbor, Maria from E. 127th notes that:

Harlem is 4.3 percent of NYC’s population but home to almost 20% of NYC treatment centers.

For the last 2 years we have repeatedly contacted State and Local officials, protested, and sent postcards, all to no avail.  Now we are going to try a different approach.

Join us to protest our real estate taxes for the exact same reason – our property values are 50% too high because we are oversaturated.

Quick Facts:

  • Notice of Property Values is sent to each owner annually every January.  The owner has until March 15th to argue that their taxes are too high.  See https://www1.nyc.gov/site/finance/taxes/challenge-your-assessment.page for more information.
  • Property tax information is public knowledge.  Everyone can find out how much tax any property is being charged by going to https://a836-pts-access.nyc.gov/care/forms/htmlframe.aspx?mode=content/home.htm
  • NYC cannot raise your taxes if you challenge the amount.  They can only lower it.
  • You still have to pay your taxes, in the same manner, you do now.  This is not a withholding of taxes protest; it is an amount of taxes protest.
  • You may have other legitimate reasons to lower your taxes that you should pursue with our protest.

We are hoping all property owners join this protest, even if your taxes are low.  Remember, we are protesting oversaturation by replacing our posters and postcards with a tax revolt.  We may not experience a reduction in taxes, but if enough Harlem residents contest their taxes, we are sure to get the city’s and media’s attention.

Join us on Monday, February 22nd at 6:00pm for a 1-hour information session.  Our voices must be heard.
https://zoom.us/j/95723122169?pwd=ajFXZVA2c1UrSG4wRVRvK3pGMEtsdz09

Meeting ID: 957 2312 2169
Passcode: 694466
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