The Militant is massively P.O.'ed today!Thats "P.O." as in "post office," actually. Today the Militant takes you to the largest post office in Los Angeles, right at zip code 90001. It's no ordinary post office, but a Sectional Center Facility (SCF), the main mail-sorting and distribution center for Los Angeles. Located on a huge-ass size of a lot in South Los Angeles along Central between Gage and Florence avenues, at 7001 S. Central Avenue to be exact (this location was once the Goodyear Tire factory from 1920 to 1979, hence the big-ass real estate). The large location is necessary for an around-the-clock operation such as this.
If you've got mail (er, the one in your mailbox, not the electronic kind), or ever sent out mail, chances are it's gone through this facility. According to an operative who works for the US Postal Service, outgoing mail is picked up at local post offices and is sent to the SCF in the afternoon, where the mail is sorted overnight. Incoming mail at this SCF is also sorted overnight, then distributed to all post offices whose ZIP codes begin with "900xx" (The five ZIP code digits refer to a city/region (the first three numbers) and a particular corresponding post office; Los Angeles has the "900" prefix, so even when the ZIP code plan was devised in the early 1960s, Los Angeles was already an important city back then) by 9 a.m. the next day.
There are other SCFs in the region as well: Van Nuys (handlinf the SFV), Marina Del Rey/Inglewood (handling the entire South Bay down to Long Beach), Santa Ana (OC) and City of Industry (SGV).
If you've got a letter or bill that needs to be sent out pronto, the Militant recommends dropping it off here at 90001 or your local SCF; there are mailboxes along Florence and by the main post office entrance on 7001 Central Avenue (which has a mail drop open all night). It's gonna wind up here anyway and it'll get to its destination q bit more quicker.
By the way, the Militant's postal operative also informed him that because of modern technology, the volume of postal mail is declining day after day -- except for all that damn junk mail (most of which originates in Wilmington, DE), which the USPS actually encourages, mainly because the junk mail companies are a major source of revenue for the postal service.
The Militant delivers for you!
