Having lived in the beautiful city of Newcastle's Olympus neighborhood for several years now, I really have come to understand the pain felt in being denied our own zip code. For years the city has battled with the postal service to issue a new zip code to Newcastle, so that that sharing zip codes 98056 and 98059 are no longer necessary. It has thus far proven to be an exercise in fultility.
Newcastle was originally a coal mining town founded in the 1870s and was an unincorporated area within King County until September 30, 1994. In 2006 the Chief Demographer of the Washington State Office of Financial Management estimated the population was 9,175. Currently the city is a suburban community with a total area of 4.5 sq. miles. Most residents work in nearby Seattle, Bellevue, or Renton, and based on per capita income Newcastle ranks 23rd of 522 areas in the state of Washington to be ranked. The most notable attractions of the area are certainly The Golf Club at Newcastle, and Lake Boren Park.
On May 16th, 2006 the city council passed a Resolution authorizing the City Manager to execute a professional Services Agreement with Doubleday Government Relations for Federal and State lobbying on behalf of the City through June 2007; the battle went all the way to Washington DC, to no avail.
The funny part of it all is that if you visit the website for the US Postal Service, it clearly states:
"While the Postal Service must be guided by concerns for service and efficiency, it does appreciate the identity and addressing concerns of local communities. Therefore, municipal requests to modify authorized last lines of address and/or ZIP Code boundaries in order to provide municipal identity, especially in undeveloped areas, will be considered and every reasonable effort will be made to accommodate them."
In reality, the postal service makes every effort to prevent this from happening. Now some may wonder why we care, why is a zip code important? A zip code gives a city its own identity; it makes each area unique to the world. Just as we all have our own unique genetic code, each area in a city has a unique zip code.
Also, it affects property values; and although Renton is a perfectly nice city, the value of comparable properties is lower than those of Newcastle. We pay higher than usual property taxes in Newcastle due to the lack of any significant commercial development tax contribution. So no homeowner enjoys paying higher taxes to live in a small exclusive community, only to be thrown in the same zip code as a much larger and more urban city. We are independent, and deserve the recognition of being afforded our own zip code; we deserve a little respect!
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