Riverdale officials are turning up the heat on the U.S. Postal Service over the Kappock Street branch in Spuyten Duyvil after residents reported repeated midday closures, long lines and growing problems with missing mail. Neighbors say service has gotten so shaky that many now hand-deliver checks and other sensitive items inside the building instead of trusting the outdoor collection boxes.
As reported by the Riverdale Press, U.S. Rep. Ritchie Torres and Assemblymember Jeffrey Dinowitz called the branch a "cornerstone" of the Knolls Crescent corridor, serving more than 11,000 residents, and sent a May 14 letter asking Bronx Postmaster Adela Livingston to step in. That May 14 letter, the paper notes, followed a wave of complaints about midday closures lasting roughly 90 minutes and chronic understaffing that can leave a single worker juggling both the lobby counter and mail sorting.
Postal Cash Crunch Raises Stakes
The officials' plea comes as the Postal Service has warned it could run out of cash within a year without help from Congress, a squeeze that has tightened staffing and service across the country, according to the Associated Press. That financial strain has led to temporary surcharges and staffing shifts that advocates say can hit smaller neighborhood stations especially hard.
Hours On Paper, Headaches In Real Life
The USPS location page lists the Spuyten Duyvil station at 562 Kappock Street with lobby and retail hours of Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., and a last collection at 5 p.m., according to USPS. Neighbors, though, told the Riverdale Press that the reality on the ground can look very different, with the branch sometimes shutting for about 90 minutes around midday and operating with only one worker on many days.
Neighbors Say Service Is Unreliable
Residents told local leaders they increasingly walk important mail directly to the counter rather than risk outdoor boxes, and many reported seeing what they believed were theft or tampering incidents at curbside slots. Neighbors also described long waits and privacy concerns when a single postal worker was handling both customers and sorting, turning what used to be quick errands into treks that can swallow a big chunk of the day.
What Officials Are Asking For
Torres and Dinowitz's letter urges the Bronx postmaster to restore consistent, fully staffed retail hours, improve security for outdoor collection boxes and tackle chronic understaffing so the branch can reliably serve the neighborhood. Bronx Executive Postmaster Adela Livingston, whom the Postal Service named executive postmaster of the Bronx in 2023, oversees postal operations across the borough, according to an USPS newsroom release.
Local leaders say they will keep pressing the Postal Service until residents see concrete improvements, and neighbors say their wish list is pretty basic: open doors, staffed counters and secure mail collection. For many in Spuyten Duyvil, the Kappock Street branch has turned into a test case of how a national postal budget crunch can land squarely in a single Bronx neighborhood.
