Brooklyn, NY – Williamsburg is pretty attached to its 11211 zip code—it’s practically part of the branding of the neighborhood. So that may explain why residents are simply horrified by the piece of mail they received from the USPS yesterday declaring the zip code dead, at least in certain areas.
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As one reader explained: “I got a letter in my box today from the post office announcing that the Williamsburg Bedford Ave-area zip code 11211 will soon become the sadly less palindromic 11249.
Today more people are not living in 11211
Why is it sad?? Big deal, who cares, I just dont get it
well we lost 11213 to other elements years ago
Zip codes became like area codes? What’s pshat?
who decided that this is a prestigious zipcode?
Ah shrek.
Such terrible nisoyinos you endure living in the usa. In Israel they worry whether they will still be there in 20 years and you worry about zip codes.
In mispar koton 11249 = 17=טוב
You all miss the point. The 11211 zip code in willy is an internationally known status symbol and is associated with many chashuve rabbonim and askanim. People pay premium prices for homes with a 11211 address and their property values will decline once they lose the prestige linked to that zipcode.
a willi guy once said to me my name is schvartz my zip code is 11211 and my phone number starts with 388 do i still have any hope. LOL
(Reply to #3) You sound like that lady on
The View!
I love VIN. It’s such a revealing window to the current issues and challenges facing American yidden in general and NYers in specific.
My parents grew up in Williamsburg in 25 B.C.E (Before the Chasidim’s Entrance) and B”H now live in Yerusalyim. At that time, hard to believe, they had no zip codes. They were called “zones” (as in Brooklyn 11, NY). And yet life went on, They too had chashuve rabbonim and people were very much involved in the Jewish community (what you call “askanim” now – just the title wasn’t invented yet). Somehow I don’t think they really cared about such things.
#15 , great post! and btw, when i see a tzedakah letter from 11211 i generally throw it out- i don’t think of it as having too much chashivos.
Probably the ones who are most affected by loss of prestige afforded by a zipcode are the hipsters. I guess this is good because the naked bike riders will no longer want to live in Williamsburg.
I don’t think the zipcode is the reason for USPS to mess up their deliveries. I happened to live in the 11206 zone, and constantly find packages in our lobby with another address on it that don’t belong to any of our residents.
What is the big deal? Prior to 1963, we didn’t have any zip codes.
Why is it changing
It’s certainly far less desirable than “10471.”
People forget that not long ago, Zip Codes were only two digits. My cousins were born in the Bronx in 1954 and 1956, and learned to write their addresses with “Bronx 53, N.Y.” When I grew up in KGH, I remember finding some old mail in my friend’s house with the address as “Flushing 67, New York.”