City Councillor John FitzGerald of Dorchester spoke at a rally in Allston on Monday to urge the USPS to re-open a post office in that neighborhood. Adam Gaffin/Universal Hub photo
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Elected officials and neighborhood leaders rallied in Allston on Monday to oppose the US Postal Service’s plan to permanently close the neighborhood’s long-shuttered post office, warning that the fight has taken on new urgency as Dorchester prepares for its own “temporary” postal office shutdown later this month in Fields Corner.
City Council President Liz Breadon, who represents Allston-Brighton, said residents were promised for years that the Allston branch would return after it closed in 2019 because of structural problems. In June 2025, she said, the postal service informed the city that it intended to reestablish retail operations and even agreed to lease space in a new development.
“Now USPS has reversed this decision and broken its promise to the Allston community,” Breadon told a crowd gathered along the Harvard Street sidewalk. “This abrupt reversal is totally unacceptable.”
Without the branch, Breadon said, roughly 87,000 Allston-Brighton residents would be served by a single post office in Brighton. She called neighborhood postal service “an essential piece of our infrastructure” and pointed to similar decisions impacting Watertown and Fields Corner.
Mayor Michelle Wu said the city had received written confirmation last year that the Allston branch would reopen, only to learn this year that USPS had backed away from the plan.
The mayor also criticized the postal service’s decision last week to shutter the Fields Corner Post Office at 218 Adams St. on Oct. 26.
“USPS just gave our Dorchester residents less than a month’s notice that they plan to, quote-unquote, ‘temporarily close’ their Fields Corner branch on October 26,” Wu said. “They gave no clear timeline there on when that branch will reopen either.”
Wu said her administration has formally requested a meeting with Postmaster General David Steiner and USPS District Manager Carissa Shea and would submit formal comments opposing the Allston closure. Her administration, Wu said, is prepared to contest the decision “legally and formally” if USPS does not reverse course.
US Rep. Ayanna Pressley warned that the closures were part of a broader effort under the Trump regime to weaken or even privatize the USPS.
“The reason why we have to agitate, resist, and give our feedback — we see this is a very slippery slope because they’re trying to bring this same pain to Dorchester, which is why solidarity is so essential in this moment,” Pressleysaid.
US Rep. Ayanna Pressley spoke out against USPS closures in Allston on Monday: “Solidarity is so essential in this moment,” she said. Adam Gaffin/Universal Hub photo
“These services are not nice-to-haves,” she said. “They are must-haves.”
Scott Hoffman, a national business agent for the American Postal Workers Union, warned that USPS often labels closures temporary and then allows years to pass without restoring service.
“They put you to sleep. ‘Oh, it’s temporary. It’s temporary.’ And then three years later it’s gone,” Hoffman said.
“It’s Allston today. Mission Hill, Fields Corner — what’s next? Southie and Mattapan?” he added. “So it starts here. We put the fight up now.”
In last week’s Reporter, US Rep. Stephen Lynch told the Reporter that he is very concerned that the post office serving South Boston’s 02127 zip code on East 3rd Streetwould likely close due to the postal service’s unwillingness to pay a higher rent when the lease expires. A spokesperson for the USPS told the Reporter last week that the lease for the South Boston office expires in 2030.
District 3 Councillor John FitzGerald told the Allston crowd that Fields Corner residents are already confronting the same uncertainty.
“Our post office is ‘temporarily’ — and I put heavy quotes on that — closing in a couple of weeks,” FitzGerald said.
FitzGerald said a conversation with his mail carrier made him think about the impact not only in terms of postal operations, but also neighborhood routines, particularly for elderly residents who walk to the branch, conduct business, and meet neighbors nearby.
He compared the Postal Service’s actions to a property owner allowing a building to deteriorate and then using its condition to justify demolition.
“That’s what they’re doing,” FitzGerald said. “It’s straight out of that playbook, where they’re dismantling it piece by piece. We can’t let that happen.”
FitzGerald added: “When we fight our fight — we’re here in Allston with you — I hope you guys will come to Dorchester and help us out, too.”
George Huynh, executive director of VietAID in Fields Corner, also spoke at the rally.
“Every day, we see how much our neighbors rely on the post office to apply for benefits, renew passports, update their address, receive important documents, and send packages home to family,” Huynh said.
“Fields Corner is now facing the same uncertainty [as Allston], and we cannot wait seven years,” he said. “We urge USPS to commit to a clear timeline for a permanent location in Fields Corner and to restore the post office here in Allston.”
“Fields Corner stands with you,” Huynh told the Allston crowd, “and I hope you’ll stand with us, too.”
Copyright © 2026 Boston Neighborhood News, Inc. This content may not be re-published or re-used without written permission.
The Reporter’s John P. Forry contributed to this report.
