The national list of more than 3,600 post offices to possibly close was compiled by the agency's Washington staff, based on such factors as revenue trends and proximity to other outlets for postal services.
Local managers then reviewed the data and came to the conclusion that it would not be "feasible right now" to continue studying 13 of the city post offices on the closure list, Yarosky said. She did not elaborate.
In the Pennsylvania suburbs, the Postal Service is still considering shutting branches in Woxall and Salford in Montgomery County. It already has consolidated a satellite office in St. Davids, Delaware County, into the nearby Wayne branch.
In South Jersey, meanwhile, an office in Dividing Creek, Cumberland County, remains on the list of possible closings.
Evan Kalish, a graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania and an online chronicler of the nation's 37,000 post offices, said many of the Philadelphia sites on the agency's hit list were in poorer neighborhoods that would have been adversely affected.
"It was only logical that a vast majority would be taken off immediately," Kalish said.
Kalish was able to identify which post offices were removed from the list after making a request under the Freedom of Information Act. Last month, he reported on his blog - "Going Postal" - that 307 offices, including the 13 in Philadelphia, were no longer being studied for closing.
The Postal Service has been criticized for how it came up with its list in the first place. In a report released Dec. 23, the Postal Regulatory Commission concluded that the agency lacked adequate data for deciding which post offices to eliminate.
