Boston residents push USPS to restore Allston post office
At a City Council hearing, residents and civic leaders said Allston has gone without a neighborhood post office since 2019.
Two hosts walk through the week’s edition in conversation — residents and officials press to restore, director’s report (chief shen), and what’s coming next. Generated by Aware, from this week’s verified summaries.
Testimony tied the missing branch to long trips, long lines, package theft, and daily obstacles for seniors, businesses, and people with mobility needs.
A basic errand has become a neighborhood problem. At a Boston City Council committee hearing, residents, written commenters, civic leaders, and Senator Ed Markey's office pressed USPS to bring back a post office in Allston. Speakers said the neighborhood has been without one since 2019, leaving people to travel farther for routine mail service.
Testimony focused on what that gap means in practice. Residents described long trips and long lines. They said seniors and people with mobility needs face added burdens when a nearby branch is gone. Businesses spoke about the strain of handling mail and packages without local service. Commenters tied the closure to package theft and said the problem lands harder in a neighborhood with a growing population.
The hearing added pressure but did not itself restore service. The immediate question is whether USPS will answer the calls from residents and elected officials and explain how it plans to serve Allston. For now, the record is clear: speakers told the council that a service many neighborhoods take for granted has been missing in Allston for years, and they want it back.
Director’s report (Chief Shen): meeting approvals summary, certificate of completion benefits, anti-displacement plan progress, Link shuttle grant, and upcoming 121B tax relief items
Director Shen used his report to tally what the board had just done and what comes next. He said the meeting's two approved projects would add 82 housing units, including 11 income-restricted units, across 49,000 square feet of new development, with about $19 million in investment and estimated construction jobs.
He pointed to a Certificate of Completion for the Benjamin Franklin Cummings Institute of Technology project in Nubian Square, describing a new technical education building with seven academic departments, 20 labs, eight shared classrooms, and student and administrative space. Shen said the project delivered $600,000 for sidewalks, crosswalks, and streetscape work and another $650,000 for environmental cleanup.
Shen then tied the meeting to broader city work. He said the Place + Thrive anti-displacement framework adopted last July now includes 53 initiatives, and he noted the Link shuttle grant for free service in Mattapan, Roxbury, Allston-Brighton, Charlestown Lower Mystic, and South Boston waterfront. He closed by previewing four previously approved projects seeking 121B tax relief agreements, with a 30-day comment period already open and board action expected next month.
Union questions Allston USPS closure process
Union representatives told the council that federal law and USPS rules require studies, notice, public comment, repair efforts, and alternate service before a branch can be permanently discontinued. They said USPS has not turned over requested information, may be using suspensions and lease issues to close offices, and did not attend the hearing.
If USPS skipped required steps, Allston residents could lose local mail service without the studies, notice, and alternatives the law requires.
School committee approves remaining grant package
The committee approved the remaining grants as a grouped item by unanimous consent after a separate vote on the English for New Bostononians grant. The package included support for skilled trades programs, preschool, electric school buses, early college, arts, STEM, Arabic language study, and afterschool learning.
large dollar figure ($4,997,000.998)
Board gets one-year anti-displacement update
Planning Advisory Council staff gave an informational update on Place + Thrive, Boston's anti-displacement plan, reporting 53 tools and nearly 70% of commitments actively implemented. Staff highlighted a new Article 80 disclosure pilot, the Boston Acquisition Fund, the Housing Accelerator Fund, and the office-to-residential conversion program.
land/acquisition
Board approves 176 Lincoln housing agreements
The board authorized affordable housing agreements for the 176 Lincoln Street project in Brighton, a 253-unit rental development. The plan includes 50 IDP units, with 23 on-site, including 10 artist units, plus an approximately $4.3 million contribution to the IDP Special Revenue Fund.
large dollar figure ($4,300,000)
What we didn’t fit in this Sundays edition
Boston had 67 more items this week. Here are sixfour — the rest are on Aware.
- GOVERNANCEIssue Invitation for Bids (IFB) for China Trade Center roof replacement (2 Boylston Street). The Board authorized issuing an IFB for a roof replacement project at the China Trade Center, 2 Boylston Street, with an estimated construction cost of $1.5 million in the FY27 capital construction budget; work includes roof replacement, skylights, roof hatch, mechanical curbing, and guardrails.
- GOVERNANCECharlestown park actions advance Peace Park transfer and Shipyard repairs. The Board approved transferring Charlestown Peace Park to the Boston Parks and Recreation Department after a community-led renovation. It also authorized an RFP for design services for landscape and infrastructure repairs at Shipyard Park in the Charlestown Navy Yard, with construction targeted for spring 2027.
- GOVERNANCEEDIC personnel actions: contract, internship, and resignation. The Board approved EDIC personnel actions including one contract in the planning division, one internship in the urban design division, and one resignation in the research division (research associate).
- GOVERNANCEExecute pass-through contract with MassDOT LinkUp Greater Boston Congestion Relief Program Grant for neighborhood shuttle/microtransit services. The Board approved EDIC’s acceptance and administration of a MassDOT pass-through grant of $11,448,556 to support free neighborhood shuttle/microtransit services in Allston-Brighton, Charlestown Lower Mystic, South Boston waterfront/Seaport, Mattapan, and Roxbury, with a three-year program and multiple partners involved in operations and oversight.
- GOVERNANCEPublic Comment: Transportation Safety, Lost Students, and Accountability. Two parent speakers described serious transportation incidents involving children being marked as dropped off when they were not, buses getting lost, delayed arrivals, and reliance on parents to track buses. They requested accountability, improved communication, and systemic changes, citing years of complaints and prior investigations.
- GOVERNANCEPublic Comment: Exam School Admissions Policy and Invitation Rates. A speaker who served on the exam school admissions task force raised concerns that recent admissions policy changes are reducing invitation rates for Black and Latina students at Boston Latin School while increasing rates for white students, and that students with disabilities and multilingual learners are invited at lower rates than earlier years.
- GOVERNANCECommittee Questions and Discussion on Superintendent’s Report (Transportation, Staffing/Placements, Diversity Concerns, Enrollment, Attendance, and Procurement). Committee members asked questions and shared observations on summer school visits, transportation performance and accountability tools, staffing and placement numbers for teachers and paraprofessionals, concerns about language requirements and equity in hiring/retention, enrollment reporting timelines, attendance re-engagement follow-up, and procurement reforms.
- GOVERNANCEBoard approves two small housing projects in Dorchester and Brighton. The Board approved Article 80E small project review for 2062 Dorchester Avenue, a 20-unit homeownership building with four income-restricted units, and 697 Cambridge Street in Brighton, a 42-unit rental building with seven income-restricted units. The Brighton approval also included community benefits and coordination on tenant relocation.
- GOVERNANCEPublic Comment: Support for Madison Park MSBA Project and Community Engagement. Speakers affiliated with Madison Park advocacy and alumni urged the Committee to continue moving the MSBA project forward, emphasized the long timeline and unmet needs, and highlighted ongoing community engagement and the importance of athletics and student supports.
- The week’s most important Boston decisions
- Plain-English explanations, every Sunday
- Delivered to your inbox — one email a week
No charge, ever. Unsubscribe anytime.
- Everything Aware covers in Boston — the full record, not just the highlights
- Plus full coverage of 3,000+ cities, not just yours
- Source documents, Ask Aware & Aware Explain
- Follow up to 5 towns · email meeting alerts
Snapshot is the starting plan — larger plans (Insight, Intelligence) add more towns, countries & usage. Sundays is the free weekly read; Aware is the platform that powers it.
Got a neighbor in Boston who should read this?
Forwarding this Sundays edition is how Sundays grows. No paid ads — just neighbors telling neighbors.
FORWARD TO A NEIGHBOR →See an error? Email us.
Sundays is generated by the Aware platform (www.awarenow.ai) and verified against the official meeting record. If something looks wrong, please tell us — we respond within 24 hours and publish corrections directly on this page. corrections@awarenow.ai
Common questions
- What is Sundays?
- Sundays is a weekly civic newsletter for Boston, MA. Each Sunday morning we summarize what the town council, school board, planning board, and other public bodies did that week — in plain English, with links to the official meeting record.
- How are these summaries generated?
- Sundays is produced by Aware (awarenow.ai), which creates short summaries from publicly recorded meetings. Summaries are generated by AI technology and can make mistakes and do not represent official public record or positions portrayed in the videos. Official recordings are available on the town's video library. Each town maintains video libraries in different ways. Summaries are subject to our terms of service. See below on how to report corrections for these summaries.
- Where can I read past Sundays editions for Boston?
- Every edition for Boston is archived on the Boston town hub. State-level archives live at sundays.news/ma.
- How do I subscribe?
- Sundays is free. Subscribe at the bottom of any edition or on the Boston town hub — one short email every Sunday morning.
- Found an error?
- Email corrections@awarenow.ai. We respond within 24 hours and publish corrections on this page.
+1 more public comment on Aware →