The personal mailbox is the latest casualty of suburban sprawl.Across the nation, the U.S. Postal Service increasingly is delivering mail to communal cluster boxes as a way to keep pace with booming residential growth while controlling labor costs. The new strategy, aimed at new developments in fast-growing areas such as Clarksburg, Leesburg and Waldorf, saves the postal service time and money.
"Instead of going from door to door, from lawn to lawn, from driveway to driveway, we have a central location," said Luvenia Hyson, a postal service regional spokeswoman.
But many residents and developers say cluster boxes -- traditionally reserved for apartments and townhouses, not single-family homes -- are impersonal, inconvenient and downright ugly.
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