Mark of Distinction’s Rallying Cry: 92037 or Fight

What’s in a postmark? Everything, say La Jolla residents who want to make sure the wealthy seaside enclave doesn’t lose its last vestige of independence from San Diego.

But these days--because the special postmark must now be affixed by hand--fewer and fewer letters that leave La Jolla bear the stamped signature that separates envelopes and other parcels from just any mail.

And, at a recent La Jolla Town Council meeting, residents let automation-minded postal officials and local politicians know just how much their 92037 postmark means to them.

For businesses, the canceled stamp translates into prestige and more business. For other residents, it’s just another way to let people know that this is palm-lined La Jolla--and not any other San Diego neighborhood.

After all, postal officials acknowledge, La Jolla is the only area of San Diego with its own postmark. And La Jollans concerned with the postmark’s now limited availability don’t want that distinction to go the same way as the 10-cent stamp.

“People do care,” said Nancy Miller, a Town Council trustee. “La Jolla has always had this definition of being its own community. A lot of people still harbor this fantasy that one day we’re going to get free of San Diego.

“The idea is that we’ll incorporate someday and have control of all the money. The postmark is just a small part of that spirit.”

Today, while the post office still offers the postmark as a courtesy, letters must be deposited in a special collection box inside the La Jolla post office lobby on Wall Street. The letters are then channeled to San Diego’s main post office on Midway Drive, where they also receive a smaller, less-distinctive San Diego postmark.

But since the La Jolla branch isn’t always open, most of the letters never reach the old-fashioned, red-white-and-blue letter box on the post office counter. Those letters then get mailed with--God forbid, say La Jollans--only the San Diego postmark on them.

The town’s postmark first became an issue two years ago when an 1930s-era canceling machine broke down and officials couldn’t find parts to fix it. “We used to be able to put La Jolla postmarks on everything people wanted,” said La Jolla Postmaster Bob Lochhead.

“But it was like an old car, we couldn’t find replacement parts for the machine, which was at least 40 years old. So we had to start postmarking people’s letters by hand.”

The post office initially placed a curbside box with a sign noting that it was for La Jolla-postmarked mail only. But, each day, literally hundreds of parcels--including metered mail and bills--were placed in the box. In an average day, 125,000 to 150,000 parcels are collected in the town of 60,000 residents.

“We just couldn’t stamp it all by hand,” Lochhead said. “It takes too long. It just went against everything we try to do here at the post office--and that’s speed things up.”

In a December meeting with San Diego Republican Congressman Bill Lowery and his staff, several La Jolla residents complained of the postmark’s disappearance, said Ben Haddad, the congressman’s chief of staff.

“The postmark means community pride,” he said. “Some people move to La Jolla for the address. It’s like Beverly Hills or Boca Raton. It’s part of San Diego, but it’s separate too.”

So Lowery had the residents run a test. “We had them send mail to Congressman Lowery just to see how the letters were postmarked,” Haddad said. “A month later, we got dozens of letters, and none had it.”

Lowery’s office has met with postal officials, trying to replace the curbside service on weekdays.

But Lochhead says the hand-cancellation process slows the mail by at least a day, and the post office will not be held responsible for mail held up for a La Jolla postmark.

La Jolla resident Ati Hughes said the postmark is a local tradition she wants to see preserved.

“I’ve lived here 30 years, and we’ve always had our own postmark--it was a good thing,” she said. “I can’t understand it, if their machine has become broken, why don’t they get a new machine? I mean, with all the money we pay to get things mailed, buy a computer, they do everything today anyway.”

Not everyone in La Jolla, however, is worried about the postmark’s demise.

“It’s of great concern to people in real estate or in money-hustling businesses like the stock market, but people born and raised in La Jolla--people who aren’t newcomers--don’t think it matters,” said Tom Gwynne, whose family owns a liquor store in La Jolla.

Nonetheless, it seems that the La Jolla postmark is here to stay.

“People are so afraid it’s going to be taken away, which isn’t true,” said Lochhead, the postmaster. “If people really want a La Jolla postmark that badly, we’ll have a system so they can get one.”