I had a very convenient blue box with a drive-up drop slot right at the end of my street, into which just about everything I had to mail (including PBS books) got dropped.  Last weekend, some teenagers decided to drop a lit cherrybomb into said blue box.  Needless to say, the boom was fantastic (woke the entire neighborhood up at 2:15 am...) and the damage extensive.  The PO removed it Monday, and I figured it would be replaced.  I stopped in my PO today and was told that it wasn't going to be replaced because not enough mail was being dropped in it.  (They actually track this stuff?) 

My question is, how much mail does a box need to justify its presence, and who can I and my neighbors petition to to get it replaced?  (My clerk was helpful but when I asked her who to comment i was handed a generic 'comment card'.  I didn't think my filling that out would garner any type of serious reaction.)

My block's mailbox was also removed -- the closest is now .75mi away in a really weird direction. There is NOT one in front of the public library, OR at the public transit train station, either of which I would think would be 'gimmie' spots, given the amount of foot traffic that goes through them.

Yes, they track mail flow in drop boxes.

I don't think there are any left in our whole town anymore. A few years back they started removing them and now the only ones that exist are beside the PO itself. Steve, suppose there's anyway to find out where they are without bothering someone at the PO? They don't have any locator or such for them online do they? Just curious :)

Several in my area have disappeared in the past couple of years. I miss them because they were so convenient to use instead of having to make a trip to the post office.

yep... they're doing that around here too.. they had an article in the paper about it and I asked our mail carrier if he had heard what would happen to our blue box.  he siad he hopes they don't get rid of it. At the time we were onlinebooksellers and he asked me to put as many of our small packages in the blue box as possible to up the count.  he also asked the big landscaping business down the block to do the same thing... Iguess our little campaign worked cause 18 months later it's still here, and all the others in town (except the ones right infront of the PO) are gone :)

The only way I know of to locate them Sherry is to call your local PO. 

I made a comment to my husband about no blue boxes being around any more. There used to be boxes in strip malls with card shops, grocery stores and office parks. No longer. I miss them.

I feel like I am robbing something, ... Not sure who robs people of their mail.  But I have three boxes that I now of: directly outside my apartment (the one I use), one around the corner from that one, and one four blocks away.  I'm in a very populated area so I guess they all get used. 

When I have a package to mail, I either use that box across the street or start a carrier pick up.

That being said every time I'm with my dad in the car he tells me about the lack of blue boxes.  I mean he saves up his mail and dropps it all into a blue box at a different zip codes.  (his neighborhood you don't want to mail things -- bills --- that are important.

http://www.mailboxmap.com/ works with google maps, and found my closest drop box for me. :)

That's a very cool link, but...it had the one listed near me that has been removed:(