Proposal would phase out door-to-door mail delivery

For generations, Americans have come to depend on door-to-door mail delivery. But under a proposal being considered today by the House of Representatives, that service could be virtually phased out over the next eight years.

Instead of letter carriers slipping mail into front-door boxes, there would only be curbside delivery — including deliveries to mailboxes at the end of driveways — and cluster box delivery.

The proposal is part of a measure aimed at cutting costs at the Postal Service by up to $4.5 billion a year. The agency had a $16 billion loss last year.

Since the 1970s, postal officials have been moving toward curbside and cluster box delivery in new residential developments.

Republican Congressman Darrell Issa, of California, who’s proposing the change, says it’s part of a “balanced approach to saving the Postal Service.”

But Democrat Steve Lynch says the plan to move some 30 million addresses from door-to-door to curbside and cluster box service would be nearly impossible in dense urban areas such as his hometown of South Boston, crowded with triple-decker apartments.