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Runyon should tell that to the folks in Livingston, where the fight has reached a pitch that rivals last year's Freemen standoff. In December, volunteers stood outside the post office in subzero weather and gathered 1,500 signatures on an antimove petition. Regional officials in Denver took notice. Postponing the decision to relocate, the Postal Service hired a market-research firm to conduct a telephone survey. However, Cooper and others found it insultingly biased--not a sincere sampling of opinion but the basis for a slick p.r. offensive.
The poll's results and the statements of postal officials bear out Cooper's cynicism. Though the survey found that a majority of residents want to keep their post office downtown (including 79% of the senior citizens, who tend to walk there), postal spokesman Robin Wright dismisses the stay-putters as "emotional" and says the poll "is a private kind of deal" to "help us with our strategy." An internal Postal Service document makes this "strategy" as plain as bureaucratic doublespeak can be: "Provide a clearer identification of the 'real' underlying concerns by the antimove advocates, along with compensatory responses designed to diffuse them."
When it comes to the Postal Service, building a bridge to the 21st century apparently means burning countless bridges to the past. Livingston won't have to wait much longer to see which side of this canyon it ends up on. According to Wright, the decision is expected to be made by next Monday. In the meantime, thousands of locals are hoping the movie marquee across the street from their beloved post office isn't a grim coincidence. In stark black capital letters, it reads, THE RELIC.