San Francisco (dpa) – Around the world, postmen and women are busy delivering letters and parcels to mark the annual Christian festival of Christmas. Except in Carmel, a little town in California.
The idyllic spot on the Pacific Coast, where Hollywood actor Clint Eastwood was once mayor, is renowned for its numerous art galleries, pretty houses and gleaming white beaches.
Oddly there are no numbers or letterboxes on the homes here and no postmen or women either. The 4,300 inhabitants of Carmel have to collect letters and parcels themselves.
It’s all part of tradition in Carmel where there are no street- lights, parking metres, neon advertising signs or ice cream cornets.
That’s right, the local council ruled that ice cream can only be sold in cardboard tubs since wafers full of sticky ice might bespatter the pavements of the neat community.
“We don’t want to be like other places. Putting numbers on the houses is a step in the wrong direction,” said Alice Englander, chairman of the local history society.
In postal terms that is the problem in a nutshell. As long as Carmel has no house numbers, the federal postal authority refuses to deliver letters and parcels. Residents of Carmel have to hire a Post Office deposit box for 14 dollars a year and, in some cases, empty it on a daily basis.
Some locals think it’s a cute tradition but not 71-year-old Joe Steinfeld who comes from Germany originally. For months now the senior citizen has been fighting to have his post delivered to the door.
Steinfeld has already hired a lawyer and says he’ll take the town to court if need be. He’s even gone so far as to put up a letterbox in front of his house, bringing him in direct conflict with the law.
After all, the last Carmel town council meeting made it clear once again. Carmel is a letterbox and house number-free zone.
One survey concludes that 85 percent of Carmel folk support this view but Joe Steinfeld does have an important ally. Bill Hill, head of the local fire department, believes it is irresponsible to have houses without numbers.
“We get emergency calls and don’t know where we are supposed to go to. You get weird addresses like ‘go to the little blue house with a squirrel on the sign and a Volvo parked in the drive,'” said Hill.
Joe Steinfeld is also fed up with telling visitors how to find his place. (It’s the third house northwest of the corner of Fifth Street and Carpenter Street).
Joe is also tired of trotting off to the post office for half an hour each day. After spending a few weeks ill in bed and having to rely on “errand boys and girls” from the neighbourhood the retired antique dealer decided to fight for “a service which every taxpayer is entitled to.”
Ex-mayor Clintwood no longer has to worry about getting his letters. He has since moved to the neighbouring village of Pebble Beach where house numbers and letterboxes are allowed.
