Where in the world is 94404?

Former Foster City mayor John Kiramis had a mission a couple of years ago. He wanted the city he lived in for more than 20 years to have its own ZIP code.

He thought he had succeeded in that quest but it appears some in Foster City, including business owner Norman Golden, are still having their mail shipped to addresses in a sliver of San Mateo that shares the 94404 ZIP code.

Kiramis took up the effort with the U.S. Postal Service to have ZIP code 94404 dedicated to Foster City in late 2007. It was an idea brought to him by a couple of his constituents. He solicited the help of senators Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer and then county supervisor Jerry Hill (now an assemblyman) to put pressure on the Postal Service to designate 94404 as Foster City’s official ZIP code.

The Foster City Council even passed a resolution in January 2008 seeking a separate ZIP code.

Somehow, the White House got a copy of Foster City’s resolution and a meeting was set up with Postal Service representatives and a couple of members of the Foster City Council, according to Kiramis.

The solution was simple.

"We give them a list of all Foster City streets and addresses and they change the first default in their computer from San Mateo to Foster City without affecting San Mateo,” Kiramis wrote in a op-ed piece published in the Daily Journal Sept. 5, 2008.

Apparently, the solution is not that simple.

Golden owns a tax preparation business on East Hillsdale Boulevard in Foster City and has had problems for years with losing his mail or having it delayed for weeks. He even has trouble placing orders online when he punches in the 94404 ZIP code because it defaults to San Mateo. He also had trouble with the Yellow Pages, who he said could not list his business as being in Foster City because 94404 defaulted to San Mateo.

Golden even quit Foster City’s Chamber of Commerce because he felt it was not being responsive to his ZIP code troubles.

"My mail would go on a cruise for weeks before it was finally delivered,” Golden said. The business owner even took up the issue at City Hall himself and now uses the nine digit ZIP code 94404-1688 on all of his mail.

All mail delivered in the 94404 ZIP code comes out of the Delaware Street Post Office in San Mateo. None of it is delivered out of the Foster City Post Office.

City Manager Jim Hardy was told the Postal Service does not always follow political jurisdictions.

"It would be nice if we had our own ZIP code like Belmont does,” Hardy said.

This problem is not new, said Councilwoman Linda Koelling. "Former councilmember Kiramis tried to change this but did not succeed. The ZIP code covers part of San Mateo and Foster City and if you type in an address for Foster City, the ZIP says San Mateo. It’s not right but I don’t see the Post Office changing this. It can be an inconvenience,” Koelling responded by e-mail.

The Postal Service did discover that there were some addresses in Foster City that showed up as being in San Mateo. The Postal Service also sells address information on compact disc to companies that do bulk mailing and some of those companies may be using outdated discs, Hardy said.

94404 covers all residences in Foster City, Mariners Island and the area around the Bridgepointe Shopping Center which sits in San Mateo.

"The Postal Service did not acquiesce and give 94404 to Foster City,” Hardy said.

In the meantime, Christopher Williams, at the Delaware Postal Service branch, said a simple phone call could fix the problem.

"The ZIP code is shared,” Williams said. "But it should have no bearing on him receiving his mail. A request could be made to the address management system to correct a problem if there is one.”

Burlingame and Hillsborough also share a ZIP code.

Foster City Councilman Art Kiesel had not heard that the mail mishaps were still taking place. He did say, however, "it would be nice that Foster City had its own ZIP code.”

Kiramis, incidentally, no longer lives in Foster City. He and his wife moved to Southern California a couple months ago.

Bill Silverfarb can be reached by e-mail: silverfarb@smdailyjournal.com or by phone: (650) 344-5200 ext. 106.