The Venice Post Office Task Force will meet on Monday, October 31 at noon, with Special Guest, Ruth Goldway, Chair of the US Postal Regulatory Commission, to discuss the fate of the Venice Post Office. The meeting will be held at SPARC, 685 Venice Boulevard, Venice, CA, 90291.
The United States Postal Service (“USPS”) recently announced plans to sell the historic Venice Post Office. The Venice Post Office Task Force, a coalition of groups including the Venice Neighborhood Council, Venice Beachhead, Los Angeles Conservancy, Venice Stakeholders Association, SPARC, Venice Arts Council and independent Venice stakeholders, joined together in a unified effort to save the Venice Post Office. Their goal is to see that the Post Office is preserved as an operating post office. In the event that the planned sale goes through, the Task Force will work to ensure that the building is preserved and public access to the famed Edward Biberman mural in the lobby is assured.
At Monday’s meeting, the Task Force will discuss their goals with Ruth Goldway, who was designated Chairman of the United States Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) by President Barack Obama on August 6, 2009. Ms. Goldway has presided over the Commission during a time marked by a record caseload and the implementation of new postal laws and regulations. On her watch, the Commission has issued a number of major decisions including Advisory Opinions on Post Office Station and Branch closings.
The Venice Post Office building was a project of the Work Projects Administration (WPA). It was designed as a post office by noted architect, Louis Simon (1867-1958).
The Story of Venice mural, created by renowned artist Edward Biberman, looks over the lobby of the post office. The mural depicts Venice founder Abbot Kinney, the vision of Venice that he had, and the way Venice looked in 1940. Biberman is an icon of post war California Modernist artists, whose work appears in the Smithsonian, the National Portrait Gallery and LACMA, among other collections.
