To the Editor:

If you all are just as outraged as me over the firing of Kevin Brown, please sign the petition below. Also please forward if you can to others who may not know about it. Thanks! http://www.change.org/petitions/entercom-communications-corp-hire-back-kevin-brown-in-the-mornings

Van Jones
Oakland, CA



To the Editor:

Steve Harvey is okay but I want Kevin Brown back. I look forward to him and his format each morning. The local flavor of the show cannot be replaced with a per-recorded canned show based in another area. This is a bad business decision that will result in a loss of listeners on mass. It's all about the listeners who patronize the advertisers.

Governor Jackson
Fremont, CA



To the Editor:

I am truly saddened by this event, Cousin Kevin and Antoine were part of a ritual for us here in the Bay Area. As for me, I have lived in other states and I have listen to Steve Harvey's show, he is funny. But with Cousin Kevin, he is not only funny - he is local. He is immersed in the community, he and his crew attends the community events and when they talk about us it is not what they heard but what they know because they are here with us.

They know what it takes to get through the Bay's traffic, they know when to soothe us with some soul stirring music and when to have us crying from laughter with the "Dumb Bunny" report or when to bring on the "Love Doctor." I Thank Entercom for bailing out KBLX, but they made a calculated mistake in bringing in a syndicated morning show. We listen differently here in the Bay Area.

I agree with an earlier post, they should have done their homework and realized that the Tom Joyner show which is just as funny as Steve Harvey's did not survive here. There is a reason for that. Bring back Cousin Kevin and Antoine and you will see that the loyal listeners will continue to listen, with out them listeners like me will tune you out.

Nina Thompson
Richmond, CA



To the Editor:

This is truly a tragedy. I am a Bay Area native who has lived in New York for the past 5 years, but will never consider myself a New Yorker. My heart and soul will always be a native Californian.

New York recently just went through the same exact situation with the so called "merger" of WBLS and KISS-FM which everyone knows is a joke and a lie. KISS-FM (call letters are WRKS-FM) was sold to Disney for ESPN Sports radio. All I can say in regards to this article, I grew up listening to Kevin Brown and having a syndicated radio show will surely keep the Bay Area people with no local connection to the community at all.

I find it ironic that this is now happening during an election year meaning of how the radio is a place that got the word out in regards to voting information. Hmmmm, seems strange to me. In closing, I will say that I hope folks will protest and do whatever is necessary to get Kevin Brown hired back because I can say that the people on the East Coast and in the case Entercom who is based in Pennsylvania know absolutely NOTHING about California people's needs and wants let alone the Bay Area!

K.W.
Brooklyn, NY



To the Editor:

Randy Shaw is of course correct that the mainstream media collaborate with mainstream politicians to hide our decades-long homelessness crisis. This strategy complements actions to hide people experiencing homelessness, in San Francisco and throughout the U.S., by criminalizing the living of private lives in public spaces.

It is important to note that the HOPE VI program was not designed to improve public housing, but rather to destroy it. The Nixon Administration initiated an effective assault on public housing with the development of the Section 8 program, privatizing Federal housing subsidies. The Clinton Administration, however, began literally to destroy public housing through HOPE VI.

Just as "welfare as we know it" was ended (and with it our nation's 60 year old promise - flawed as it was - to support impoverished families), so too did the Clinton Era's amendments to the National Housing Act of 1937 eliminate the goal of safe and affordable housing for all (a goal, of course, which had never been realized).

Concomitant with the abolition of the requirement for one-to-one replacement of public housing units, the HOPE VI program authorized the use of our tax dollars literally to blow up public housing. In cities like Baltimore, Maryland, 75% of the destroyed units were were not replaced.

Creating and maintaining homelessness is a thoroughly bipartisan project. The current Administration is no exception, having just announced that HUD should require even individuals and families with no income to pay rent for public housing - yet another homelessness production program. Mitt Romney has no monopoly on execrable housing policies.

Jeff Singer
Baltimore, MD



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