For Dunwoody, ZIP code bid is about identity

Now Georgia’s newest city hopes it has the answer. Dunwoody plans to ask the U.S. Postal Service if the folks in its 30360 area can join the city’s dominant five digits, 30338.

“Dunwoody has always had a sense of community about it, but since becoming a city, that sense of identity has increased,” said Gil Hearn, an asset manager who lives in 30360 and supports the request. “The potential to change everyone to 30338 only reinforces that identity.”

Identity is an especially sensitive issue in new towns like Dunwoody and neighboring Sandy Springs, just 2 and 5 years old, respectively.

Despite being historical places, neither has much of a downtown or traditional landmarks. Both have worked hard to find ways to unify their residents and create a sense of community.

Supporters believe that matching a ZIP code to municipal borders would work wonders for that effort -- even if getting that change is about as likely as solving traffic jams at Spaghetti Junction.

“What we find when we get ZIP code change requests, more often that not it comes down to community,” said Michael Miles, a spokesman for the Postal Service’s Atlanta district. “For us, though, it comes down to where we can most efficiently house the carriers and most efficiently serve the customers.”

Translated, in the blunt estimation of Sandy Springs Mayor Eva Galambos: “Trying to change the boundaries of the ZIP codes is like drawing wisdom teeth -- except you can successfully remove wisdom teeth.”

Still, Dunwoody plans to ask the Postal Service to extend its 30338 ZIP code to include city residents in the 30360 area, and perhaps even the tiny sliver of 30350 it shares to its west with Sandy Springs.

Dunwoody also wants to be listed as the actual city for the code. Atlanta now has that honor, though Dunwoody is accepted in the address.

“It’s an issue of how do we make our city cohesive,” said Councilman John Heneghan. “We can firm up the identity of the city.”

It could, however, make life more confusing for Doraville residents. All postal customers in 30360 would get a mailed survey, seeing if they wanted the change.

If a majority agreed, all of 30360 would become Dunwoody, not just the part in that city’s borders.

The problem of Dunwoody residents with a Doraville address would flip. Doraville residents could wind up with Dunwoody as their official city.

“That’s stupid,” said Jermaine Hemby, an IT worker who lives in the 30360 area of Doraville. “You know if you’re in Dunwoody or Doraville, so why not just let the mail say Atlanta and leave it at that?”

That would mean keeping the current system, where a huge swath of south and central DeKalb County is called Decatur despite being 20 minutes away.

It’s the same system where everything from crimes off Panola Road to the busy stores and eateries at Stonecrest Mall are attributed to Lithonia, the tiny nearby city whose borders are less than 1 square mile.

That kind of confusion brings the battle back to one of hometown pride.

Galambos, 82, felt so passionately about proper attribution to Sandy Springs that she launched a blog last spring by urging residents to claim the city in their addresses.

She also has been known to take business leaders to task in public meetings, making sure they use Sandy Springs instead of Atlanta for its six ZIP codes.

UPS has been the biggest win. The phrase “Sandy Springs based” is on the letterhead of the firm’s community notes and press releases.

“Sandy Springs had a standalone post office, so that was possible with no operational issues affected,” Miles said.

Dunwoody does not have that luxury. Its mail is handled through both the Dunwoody and Doraville post offices.

That means a seemingly easy switch for it, and most other communities, becomes an intense review of how and where carriers can best sort and deliver the mail. The analysis is done locally and across the country, considering that ZIP codes are a national system.

"I have some elderly neighbors who, to this day, swear they live in Doraville," said Dunwoody City Councilman Doug Thompson. "They've never lived in Doraville."

It will be next year before it's clear as mud if they still don't.