Folks in two Tacoma neighborhoods were upset about the prospect of losing their local post office. And understandably so: Closures are especially hard on people who don’t drive and those who depend on their local post office as a safe place to receive and send mail.

So they were relieved to learn Thursday that the two locations wouldn’t be closed after all. At least not in the near future.

Residents who rely on those offices shouldn’t get complacent, because there’s a good chance that one or more local post offices eventually could be closed. They should be doing whatever they can to immunize their local site from that possibility. Giving it more business is a good first step. Another strategy some communities have used is to buy the post office building and make it available for minimal or no rent.

Closing post offices is one of the more cost- effective steps the U.S. Postal Service can take as it looks at how to address an expected $7 billion deficit.

The USPS is being forced to make some hard decisions in these tough economic times. And make no mistake, the USPS is a business. Although it is a quasi-governmental agency and must get congressional approval for many actions, it receives no taxpayer money for its operations.

Like many businesses in this recession, the Postal Service is experiencing higher costs at the same time that revenues have decreased. More Americans are paying bills and communicating online instead of by “snail mail” – which means people are buying fewer stamps – and the recession has taken a big bite out of advertising mail. Total mail volume dropped from 212.5 pieces to 203 billion last year; this year it’s expected to be down to 175 billion.

Less revenue is coming in, but delivery costs are going up, due to gas prices and population growth that adds 1.2 million new addresses to be served every year.

Something has to give. One proposal is to drop Saturday mail delivery. But even that won’t be enough, saving only $3.5 billion. So the Postal Service must look at downsizing. It’s already done some of that: reducing work hours by 88 million since October 2008, offering early retirements, combining carrier routes and reducing office hours at many locations.

Now the USPS is proposing closure of about 700 to 1,000 post offices nationwide. And while the local offices targeted for closure are safe for now, that could change at any time. Communities shouldn’t expect to escape unscathed, but they should expect that the USPS be more forthcoming about how it decides which offices should be closed.